Top World News
No 10 leaves option open to impose Chinese EV tariffs if UK joins EU scheme
Beijing warns against ‘discriminatory’ step after France drops opposition to British role in Made in Europe packageNo 10 has left the door open to imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of the Made in Europe package, prompting a warning from Beijing that such a move would be “discriminatory”.Downing Street said on Friday that it would “welcome the objective to have the UK included in the Industrial Accelerator Act” after France dropped its opposition to Britain joining the scheme. Continue reading...
India’s Cockroach Janta party leader arrested amid crackdown on protests
Abhijeet Dipke was detained before planned anti-government demonstrations in DelhiThe leader of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) youth movement, Abhijeet Dipke, was detained by police on Friday and then later formally arrested as authorities cracked down on fresh anti-government protests in the Indian capital.Dipke was detained before a planned Friday evening demonstration he had called in central Delhi, urging supporters of the movement to come out and hold up the Indian flag. Continue reading...
Trump ridiculed with laughter at big EU summit as Zelenskyy smirks over midterm question
An audience laughed at President Donald Trump during a European summit after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answered a question about Trump’s midterm troubles with only a smile.The exchange closed Zelenskyy’s press conference Friday at the European Council summit in Brussels after Sky News Europe correspondent Alistair Bunkall asked him the question.“President Trump is facing pretty difficult midterm elections. His personal popularity is very low. Diesel prices in the U.S. are very high. And the war that he started in the Middle East is not going the way he wants it,” Bunkall said.“Do you think you are being treated as a scapegoat for his own problems?” Bunkall asked.Zelenskyy paused for about eight seconds, looked down at his podium and then smiled at the audience.The room broke into laughter as Zelenskyy opened his hand toward the crowd, the video shows.“This is my answer,” Zelenskyy said.The reply drew a second wave of laughter, according to the video.“Thank you so much,” Bunkall said.Al Jazeera reported that the question came a week after Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel, then blamed Zelenskyy’s strikes on Russian oil refineries for high U.S. diesel prices.“I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” Trump told reporters at the White House the next day, the outlet reported.“He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel,” Trump said, according to Euronews.Euronews reported that Trump puts the blame for diesel prices solely on Zelenskyy, but the refinery strikes are part of Ukraine’s defense against the invasion Russia launched in 2022.Ukrainian drones were striking Russian refineries months before the Iran war, hitting two major plants in a single night in August 2025, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.U.S. diesel prices surged after Trump launched his war with Iran on Feb. 28, rising from $3.81 a gallon to $6.19 by early October, according to Energy Information Administration figures cited in an Al Jazeera analysis. The analysis found that those figures show the war in Ukraine changed prices little.The spike has become a political liability for Republicans ahead of next month’s midterm elections, Al Jazeera reported.“Prices are rising because of the war in the Middle East, the blocking of Hormuz,” Zelenskyy told ABC News the day after Trump called for his replacement, according to Mother Jones.Tensions spread to Ukraine’s military internet Wednesday, when a Zelenskyy adviser said SpaceX had slowed Starlink satellite service on moving terminals without warning Ukraine’s forces, CNBC reported.“Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military, and ultimately POTUS [the president],” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on X about Starshield, the military version of Starlink, the outlet noted.SpaceX began restoring Starlink speeds that day, CNBC reported, even though Musk insisted his company had nothing to do with the limits.“I am sure they knew what they did, absolutely,” Zelenskyy told British journalist Piers Morgan that day, referring to Trump and Musk.“I’ll be frank—this was a very unpleasant and dangerous surprise regarding the ‘Starlink’ satellites,” Zelenskyy said when asked about it again at Friday’s press conference.Trump kept up his criticism Thursday, a day before the press conference, calling Ukraine’s renewed refinery strikes a “disgrace” after Kyiv dropped his energy ceasefire.“I think I find Zelenskyy to be more difficult to deal with than Putin,” Trump told Newsmax.
Fury as Trump envoy stays silent after Americans are 'severely' beaten abroad: report
Two Americans were “severely” beaten Thursday and Friday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and outrage poured in as U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee remained silent on the matter.Heidi Levine, a veteran journalist and photographer for The Washington Post, was “severely” beaten Friday, the Post reported, while “wearing a protective vest clearly marked PRESS on front and back.” She was “kicked repeatedly” after being knocked to the ground, and “stripped of her cameras and phone” by Israeli settlers.“I just got back actually two days ago from three weeks in Ukraine,” Levine said from a hospital bed, video shared by independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel showed. “I’ve been covering this conflict here for over three decades, and this is the second time that I’ve been brutally attacked — 15 years ago I was also attacked in front of the [Israeli] army.”Haitham Taysir, a U.S. citizen, was assaulted on Thursday “while working in his family’s olive groves,” The Vulnerable People Project reported.Huckabee, the chief diplomatic representative in Israel whose top responsibilities include protecting U.S. citizens, has condemned Israeli settler violence in the past. He has also, however, ignored violent attacks on Americans in Israel.“An American citizen, Haytham Taysir, was just severely beaten by settlers in his olive groves in Burqa, Ramallah,” wrote Nathaniel in a social media post on X. “[Huckabee], how’s that crackdown on settler terrorists going?”Nathaniel, who rushed to Levine’s aid shortly after the attack, provided additional details on the incident.“The [Israel Defense Forces] provided cover, with tear gas and machine guns, while the settlers beat Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine nearly to death,” Nathaniel wrote. “Then the IDF shot a Palestinian bystander, and aimed their guns and shoved the paramedics who were trying to treat him. All of this [is] documented.”Journalist and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan was left shaken by video of Levine receiving medical treatment.“Israeli settlers, funded and protected by the United States, attacked this female American journalist in her sixties,” Hasan wrote in a social media post on X.There are more than 700,000 Israeli settlers illegally living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with instances of Israeli settler violence reaching record-high levels in recent months.Heidi Levine is up and speaking from the hospital in Ramallah. https://t.co/VAar6Z7PSS— jasper nathaniel (@infinite_jaz) October 16, 2026
Flash floods destroy villages in central Nepal
Landslide blocks river and triggers downstream flooding, while summer temperatures persist in PortugalFlash floods have swept through Nepal’s central Gorkha district after a pre-dawn landslide on 11 October blocked the Budhi Gandaki River, triggering severe downstream flooding. Two villages in the worst-affected Chumanubri rural municipality were reportedly destroyed, with homes, roads and bridges washed away. Part of a hydropower station was also damaged.After river levels surged from 2 metres to nearly 8.5 metres within hours, the national disaster risk reduction and management authority reported that 204 homes were damaged, and more than 650 people had been affected. More than 100 foreign trekkers were stranded in the popular hiking region. The floods come just two months after catastrophic flooding and landslides devastated parts of the country on the border with Tibet, leaving thousands dead or missing. Continue reading...
Museum releases historical photos of island where Amelia Earhart may have crashed
Images from New Zealand aerial survey of Nikumaroro in 1938 offer new clues over aviator’s disappearanceA New Zealand museum has released nearly 50 photos from a 1938 aerial survey of the island where Amelia Earhart is believed to have crash-landed, offering amateur sleuths new evidence to scour for traces of the pioneering aviator and her plane.The black-and-white images were published by the Air Force Museum of New Zealand after renewed interest in one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century, spurred by a US expedition to the Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro in search of new clues. Continue reading...
Musk drives bus over Trump after abrupt Ukraine move turns deadly
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk named President Donald Trump as “ultimately” responsible for limits on Ukrainian troops’ satellite internet after Ukraine’s president said a sudden slowdown left people dead.Musk made the remark Wednesday in a post on X, replying to former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who had urged him to lift a speed limit on Starshield, the government version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service.Earlier Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told British broadcaster Piers Morgan in an interview that people were killed because interceptor drones relying on Starlink did not work.“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk wrote.“Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company,” he added.“Starlink connectivity at speeds of up to 160 km/h is being restored. Removing Starshield’s speed limit entirely is now critical for Ukraine’s defense,” Fedorov had written, thanking Musk.SpaceX capped Starshield terminals in motion at 100 miles per hour overnight, without warning, disrupting several military missions, presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said, the Kyiv Independent reported.“This complicates drone missions — specifically those involving interceptors and mid-range strike drones — and hampers capabilities for frontline logistics, reconnaissance, and signal relay,” a Defense Ministry source told the outlet.Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the actual limits were “significantly lower” during the day, but service had stabilized by evening with the cap still in place, according to the Kyiv Independent.In the interview, Morgan pointed out that only four of 40 ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine had been shot down and asked whether Musk, who Morgan said had recently called for a new Ukrainian president, had deliberately slowed the service.“I’m sure that they knew what they did. Absolutely. Because it was 1 a.m.,” Zelenskyy replied.“And Starlink was blocked, of course, by SpaceX and ... by the United States. It is their right, but … what they did, [is] they made (sic) whole pressure on us ... No working information about ballistic [missiles] before attack, and then switch off the Starlinks,” he continued.“And when you destroy Shaheds [Russia’s Iranian-designed attack drones], and often when we destroy jet Shaheds, we use drones with Starlinks … So people were killed because not enough destroying, not enough interceptors, including interceptors with Starlink, which didn’t work, of course,” Zelenskyy said.Zelenskyy also told Morgan he hoped the slowdown was only a “mistake,” The Hill reported.“Obviously, this action cannot be a coincidence and is associated with the current political situation,” Beskrestnov said earlier, according to the Kyiv Independent. The outlet noted that the White House has not commented on the restriction.The satellite slowdown came days after Trump publicly warned Zelenskyy to stop the refinery strikes, in remarks the White House shared on X.“We told Zelensky, ‘You can do whatever you want to Russia, but don’t hit the refineries because that’s a world problem.’ And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel. He better damn well stop,” Trump said Oct. 10.“Zelensky has gone too far,” Musk wrote the same day, sharing the clip.
Skepticism as 'grubby' Trump caught up in another 'collusion' campaign to help Russia
President Donald Trump seems to be caught up in what The Guardian's editorial board describes as a "coordinated pressure" campaign to tip the Ukraine war in Russia's favor.The editorial board pointed to several "perilous circumstances" that have arisen in recent weeks. They pointed to Ukrainian forces losing access to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service, Ukraine suffering significant casualties after a Russian missile strike that the U.S. did not warn them about, and Trump's insistence that Ukraine hold elections despite the country still being at war, something that Russian President Vladimir Putin has also called for. "This raises suspicion of coordinated pressure to tip the scales in Russia’s favor after many months when Mr. Putin’s forces have failed to deliver significant advances and his country’s economy has been suffering from the effect of Ukrainian missile and drone counterstrikes," the editorial argued. The editorial argues that there is good reason to suspect Trump would go along with such a campaign. For instance, Trump has sought to blame Ukraine's attacks on Russia's oil refineries as the reason for rising diesel prices to avoid scrutiny of his disastrous war against Iran, which resulted in the Strait of Hormuz being closed for several weeks. "Mr. Trump is unhappy with Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries. He claims that this is the cause of high energy prices afflicting American consumers and threatening Republican prospects in next month’s midterm elections," the editorial reads in part. "The domestic imperative to keep pump prices down led Mr. Trump to do a grubby deal to import diesel from Russia, in flagrant breach of international sanctions.""Russia is failing to achieve its war aims because the invasion was conceived in delusional hatred for the very idea of independent Ukrainian nationhood, which routinely underestimates that country’s will to resist. That is a flaw in Mr Putin’s plans that no amount of collusion with Mr Trump can fix," it added.
Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza denies using AI to write prize-winning story
Article in Atlantic claims The Blue Fighter was artificially generated, days after it won Caine prize for African writersThe Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using AI to write a prize-winning short story after an article in the Atlantic said software had flagged it as almost completely AI-generated.Kundizeza’s story The Blue Fighter was announced as the winner of the prestigious Caine prize for African writers on 6 October. Five days later, The Atlantic published an article by the author and journalist Vauhini Vara titled: “Yet Another Literary prize winner Seems to Be AI.” Continue reading...
India’s cockroach protesters defy Modi’s crackdown – The Latest
A fresh wave of protests by India’s youth-led Cockroach movement has been met with a brutal crackdown by Narendra Modi’s government and the closure of a historic protest site in Delhi. Two of the movement’s leaders have been imprisoned for five days for violating suppression measures. The protests, which began over frustration about education and unemployment, are now focused on voting rights. Modi’s government denies claims it is seeking to disenfranchise millions of voters. But its treatment of protesters has been criticised by the UN and Amnesty International and raised concerns that India is sliding further into autocracy. Lucy Hough speaks to South Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen – watch on YouTube Continue reading...
MAGA lawmaker's pro-Russia attack ends in public scolding from Polish official
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) drew a public rebuke from Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski after parroting a Kremlin talking point by asking whether he was part of the problem in Ukraine peace talks.The exchange played out Wednesday on X, where Luna responded to a post Sikorski had aimed at SpaceX owner Elon Musk.Sikorski had asked whether Musk was “playing politics” with Starlink after Ukrainian officials said SpaceX restricted their access without warning, the Kyiv Independent reported.SpaceX imposed a 100-mile-per-hour speed limit on Ukraine’s moving Starlink terminals overnight, disrupting several missions, Ukrainian presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said, according to the outlet. Ukraine’s military relies on the satellite internet service for communications and drone operations, the Kyiv Independent reported.“Obviously, this action cannot be a coincidence and is associated with the current political situation,” Beskrestnov said.President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold intelligence and other aid from Kyiv, but Beskrestnov offered no evidence that the restrictions were tied to U.S. pressure, the outlet reported. The White House has not commented, the Kyiv Independent said.“Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again? As your European customers, we are watching you,” Sikorski wrote.Sikorski and Musk clashed over Starlink in March 2025, when Musk wrote that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse” if he turned the service off.“Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year. The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers,” Sikorski replied at the time.Luna lobbed an attack at Sikorski.“That goes both ways @sikorskiradek. Have you at all assisted [Trump] or [Secretary of State Marco Rubio] in the peace negotiations or are you PART of the problem??” Luna wrote on Wednesday.Sikorski responded about two hours later.“Madam, as a neighbour of both Ukraine and Russia, we would be delighted to support [Trump] in peace negotiations. Please note, however, that to get to a deal pressure should be put on the aggressor and not on the victim of aggression,” the Polish official said.The attack followed a year of Luna’s meetings with Russian officials, including Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s economic envoy to President Vladimir Putin. Dmitriev met Luna in Miami in October 2025 and gave her flowers and chocolate printed with Putin quotes, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.In March, Luna hosted Russian lawmakers in Washington who face U.S. sanctions for voting to back Russia’s 2022 invasion, The Moscow Times reported.Russian lawmaker Vyacheslav Nikonov, who led the delegation, said the two sides discussed a possible visit by U.S. lawmakers to Moscow, the outlet reported.
'Their agenda is dead': Republican lawmaker threatens Trump admin for 'aiding' the enemy
A retiring House Republican issued a blunt warning to President Donald Trump's administration after Ukraine lost access to the military version of the Starlink satellite network, a key piece of its battlefield communications.Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a retired Air Force general who has served in Congress since 2017, is so far the only Republican lawmaker to publicly criticize the administration over the restrictions, which Ukrainian officials blamed on the U.S. president.“The Administration’s decision to reduce intel sharing to Ukraine & access to Starlink equates to aiding the invader & the war criminal who bombs cities,” Bacon posted on X. “Does the Administration think it will get ANY support for the remainder of the 119th Congress? Their agenda is dead unless they change paths.”Ukraine said its military lost access without warning overnight to Starshield, the Pentagon-funded version of Starlink. Ukrainian officials and analysts concluded the move came from Washington, reported the New York Times. SpaceX, its chief executive Elon Musk and the Pentagon did not respond to the newspaper's requests for comment.The restrictions cut off terminals moving faster than 100 miles per hour, and Ukrainian officials said that disrupted drone missions against Russian supply lines and interceptors used to shoot down Russian drones.“Clearly, this action cannot be a coincidence and is linked to the current political situation,” wrote Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky on weapons technology.“In effect, our partners’ actions are depriving us of one of the few ways we have to defend the country against jet-powered Shaheds,” Beskrestnov added.The cutoff came as Russia launched 39 ballistic missiles at Ukraine’s energy grid overnight, according to Zelensky. That would be the largest such salvo of the war, according to the Times. The attack left 600,000 people in Kyiv without power.Ukraine has stopped striking Russian oil refineries at Trump’s demand, even as Russia keeps hitting Ukrainian power plants.Serhii Sternenko, a former Ukrainian defense ministry adviser, said Kyiv had gotten nothing in return.“Trump was looking for any opportunity to undermine our defense capabilities,” Sternenko wrote on social media.Zelensky has also said Ukraine stopped receiving early warnings about some Russian missile strikes. Trump said Tuesday that intelligence was still being shared, and Ukraine’s air force said it did receive warnings ahead of several later attacks that night.
