Top World News

Protests erupted throughout France on Saturday, with demonstrators citing a wide variety of grievances including inequality, the high cost of living, and poor conditions in the nation’s schools.As reported by Agence France-Presse, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Paris and other cities to protest what they said was inaction by the French government on the biggest problems facing the country.“For years we’ve had climate, economy, and equality problems,” one protester identified as Agnes told AFP, “but the government is not doing anything about it.”18-year-old student Kamil Alahyan told AFP that there are “so many reasons” to protest, including “the elections coming up in 2027, politicians who lie, the ultra-rich who’ve been taking more and more wealth over the past 10 years.”A 19-year-old protester identified as Lola expressed a similar view in an interview published by The Guardian on Saturday.“We are fighting because the cost of living is too harsh,” Lola said, “because the price of fuel is too high, because high school pupils are being violently attacked and hurt all over the country just for trying to protest and ask for more teachers and decent learning conditions.”Student organizer Ryad Rani told AFP that “the government is trembling and it’s right to tremble because when the French people are angry, they never let up.”Saturday’s demonstrations mark the expansion of a movement that began last month when students blockaded their schools to protest staffing shortages, dilapidated buildings, and a widely criticized university application system.According to The New York Times, demonstrations took place in at least 140 cities across the country.Some of the protests did turn violent in major cities including Lyon, Marseille, and Paris, AFP reported. A Saturday BBC report claimed that more than 270 protesters have been arrested nationwide.French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu accused “ultra-left groups” of inciting violence at the demonstrations.“To those who clearly want to use these acts of violence as a ‘warm-up’ ahead of the presidential election, let me be clear: we will not be intimidated,” Lecornu wrote in a social media post. “No one will impose their political agenda through violence.”Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader the left-wing France Unbowed party, slammed the media for focusing too much on the isolated incidents of violence and not reporting on the overwhelmingly peaceful nature of the demonstrations.“Crowds of people everywhere, calm and joyful everywhere when the police aren’t around,” Mélenchon wrote in a social media post that featured photos of peaceful marches from across the country, which he described as “images you won’t see in the official media.”

Style of emceeing based on high-octane, ad-libbed vocals has flourished thanks to its unique way of captivating crowdsFor the 2015 freshmen cohort of the history degree programme at the University of Lagos, their classmate’s first-semester presentation was so captivating that they began calling him Toby Shang, after the 16th-century Chinese dynasty he had focused on.His crowd engagement that day had been harnessed from his high school days as a ginger-man (energiser) in a three-man band and as a private tutor. By his final year at university, his viral catchphrases and infectious energy had resulted in a hit song, Shedibalabala. Today, he is one of the self-acclaimed “evangelists and pioneers” in the Afrobeats sub-genre some are now calling Afrohype or lamba. Continue reading...

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) says President Donald Trump’s plans for the post-election session of Congress are finished. He blamed the president’s latest move on Russia.“Congress has a lame-duck session. The President has an agenda: supplemental, reconciliation, Ballroom, etc… I think the agenda is dead,” Bacon wrote on X Saturday.“Many of us won’t fund these things knowing he is propping up a dictator’s invasion and throwing an ally under the bus,” he added.Bacon is a retired Air Force brigadier general. He was replying to CNN anchor Kate Bolduan, who had pointed to the GOP backlash over Trump’s decision to put on hold the sweeping Russia sanctions law named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).“Tillis. Not holding back. Also saw @JohnCornyn just tweet ‘Lindsey would be appalled,’” Bolduan wrote. “But key question…what can/is the senate going to do about it?”Bacon’s answer was money.Trump signed an executive order Friday pausing the package, which he had signed into law only last month. He told Congress the pause was in the national interest. The law targets Russian banks, officials and the “shadow fleet” of tankers carrying Russian energy. It also calls for tariffs on the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas.A week earlier, Trump had announced a deal to import Russian diesel. He has since said Ukraine needs “a new president.”Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) had already blasted the pause as “beyond irresponsible.” He accused the administration of “capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day.”Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, “Lindsey would be appalled,” Bolduan noted.Bacon isn’t running for reelection. He has been one of the few House Republicans willing to break with Trump on Ukraine.Congress has a lame-duck session. The President has an agenda: supplemental, reconciliation, Ballroom, etc… I think the agenda is dead. Many of us won’t fund these things knowing he is propping up a dictator’s invasion and throwing an ally under the bus.— Rep. Don Bacon ????????✈️????️⭐️????️ (@RepDonBacon) October 17, 2026

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a five-word tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham on Saturday. Plenty of people took it as a jab at President Donald Trump.“Thank you for everything, Lindsey!” Zelenskyy wrote on X, in English and Ukrainian. He attached a photo of himself shaking hands with Graham, who is giving a thumbs-up.Zelenskyy didn’t mention Trump. But the timing stood out. The post went up hours after Trump put on hold the sweeping Russia sanctions law named for Graham, a South Carolina Republican and longtime Russia hawk who died in July.“Late last night, President Trump waived the financial punishments on buyers of Russian oil that Congress had enacted to stop funding Putin’s war machine,” wrote Margaret Brennan, moderator of CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Passing that bipartisan bill was meant to honor Lindsey Graham’s legacy, as he had pushed for those sanctions.”She added that Zelenskyy said Saturday “it is harder now without Senator Lindsey Graham in Ukraine’s corner.”Caitlin Doornbos, a foreign policy and war reporter who founded the outlet The Correspondent, also pointed to the timing.“Wow. President Zelensky posts this hours after Trump announced waivers of the new Lindsey Graham sanctions law on Russia,” she wrote.Christopher Miller, the Financial Times’ chief Ukraine correspondent, shared the post with a one-word reaction: “Wow.”Others read it as a deliberate shot.“Zelenskyy is basically just trolling Trump at this point, and I’m all for it,” wrote Vatnik Soup, a popular pro-Ukraine account.Finnish geopolitical analyst Joni Askola called it “a clear message from Zelensky to Trump.” Nicolas Tenzer, a senior French civil servant and senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, wrote: “This is the message.”John O’Brennan, a professor of European politics, called it “master trolling.”Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov brought up Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to finish his term.“Wonder what Darline would say about who she stands with,” Tarlov wrote.The post comes during a rough stretch between the two leaders. Trump said last week that Ukraine needs “a new president.” He also blamed Zelenskyy’s strikes on Russian refineries for high U.S. diesel prices, and Thursday he said he finds Zelenskyy “more difficult to deal with than Putin.”

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.

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

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...

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...