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7532 articles · page 4 of 157 · The World front page
A new dog law comes into force in the UK on 1 November, requiring owners of banned dog breeds to ensure children under the age of 12 are not left in close contact with their pets in a private place without adult supervision. The regulation is part of a government crackdown on banned breeds; having a banned dog against the law can bring penalties including prison time.
Bulgaria’s presidential election will be decided in a runoff on Sunday, with acting President Iliana Iotova facing former interim Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov after a first round that saw record low turnout of just under 23 per cent. The two candidates, both running as independents, are backed by opposing factions and represent opposing foreign policy approaches and political alignments.
The rapid expansion of data centers has become one of Maine’s volatile campaign issues, as rural voters push back against resource strain and rising utility costs while tech and data center interests spend millions on the race. Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson are campaigning amid a September poll in which 76 percent of respondents said they oppose building a data center in their community, in a contest that will help determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Beijing’s annual independent queer film festival has been cancelled after what is understood to have been a campaign of sustained harassment from the authorities, with organisers announcing the Love Queer Film Week cancellation late Thursday as police increased pressure through repeated phone calls in recent weeks.
A man who mowed down a head teacher and dragged him for more than a mile while trapped beneath his car has been found guilty of murder. Simon Richardson, 35, was convicted at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court of killing Michael Mullins, 56, as he cycled home from Stretford Grammar School on 20 April. There were shouts of 'Yes!' from the public gallery as the verdict was announced, and others could be heard crying. The judge, Mrs Justice Brunner KC, told Richardson the only sentence for murder is life imprisonment. He will be sentenced on Monday.
· 8 sourcesThe United States has upped pressure on its ostensible allies as part of a push for a truce in the Russia-Ukraine war. Kyiv has paused strikes on Russian refineries at Washington's behest, as Washington seeks to corral fuel prices, The Wall Street Journal reported, while Reuters reported that the Pentagon urged European leaders to calm their rhetoric over the threat of Russian aggression. The Trump administration has also waived new sanctions on Russian energy and reached a diesel deal with the Kremlin, decisions met with unease in Europe, which sees Washington as unnecessarily pressuring Kyiv.
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have followed President Trump's push to rebrand artificial intelligence as 'super intelligence' on their companies' earnings calls, a month after Trump ordered executive branch departments and agencies to make the switch. Other tech leaders, including Amazon's Andy Jassy, Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, continued to use the term AI on their calls this week.
· 2 sourcesTexas has unilaterally taken control of nine islands on the Rio Grande, prompting Mexico to demand respect for the 1970 Boundary Treaty. State Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham authorised the Texas National Guard to access the river islands to maintain operational security.
More than 1,400 Africans have been recruited since 2023 to fight for Russia in Ukraine, a sensitive issue that is absent from the Africa-Russia summit agenda. In Tunisia, concern is growing as families of several men who travelled to Russia for work or study are still searching for answers about their loved ones, according to a France 24 report.
A Russian drone strike killed at least 14 people at a train station in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, even as a US-brokered localized ceasefire in the occupied city of Oleshky held for a third day, Semafor reported.
The 2027 edition of the Dakar Rally will be hosted by Portugal and Morocco, organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) announced, after the event was pulled from Saudi Arabia over security concerns. The prologue and opening stage will be in Portugal's Algarve region before the rally moves to Morocco for 11 stages.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has reversed its decision to hold the Africa Cup of Nations every four years, announcing that the tournament will return to its traditional two-year cycle.
· 2 sourcesEl Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is sending up to 2,000 troops to Haiti, a deployment that could double or triple, to combat gang violence and locate four military personnel captured in an ambush on Oct. 18. Bukele called President Donald Trump on Tuesday to make sure he had no problem with the deployment, and Trump told him, according to sources briefed on the call, 'Do what you have to do.'
· 2 sourcesThe Atlanta Dream ensured the WNBA Finals would go to a first-ever Game 7, defeating the Golden State Valkyries 80-69 on Thursday in Atlanta. The winner-take-all final will take place Saturday night at the Chase Center in San Francisco, with either team poised to become a first-time champion.
The No Surprises Act has prevented about 50 million surprise medical bills since taking effect in 2022, but the law's arbitration process for resolving payment disputes between providers and health plans has grown far beyond expectations, generating over 2 million disputes last year compared with an initial government estimate of 17,000. Murtagh says arbitration is adding to insurance costs and could lead to higher premiums for consumers.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen says it intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by the Houthis towards Saudi Arabia's Mecca region on Friday morning, while a Houthi spokesman denied targeting the Muslim holy city or its surrounding area.
· 2 sourcesA helicopter carrying six people, including five pilgrims, crashed in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand on Friday after reportedly taking off from the Hindu pilgrimage site of Badrinath and losing contact. Rescue teams have been sent to the area near Joshimath in Chamoli district, but the condition of those on board remains unclear, officials said.
· 3 sourcesRussian strikes plunged the Ukrainian city of Dnipro into a near-total blackout on Friday, leaving more than 350,000 people without power, as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was preparing fresh ballistic missile attacks and urged allies to supply more air defense interceptors.
· 2 sourcesPennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is campaigning through the state ahead of Tuesday's election, with a report describing him as threatening a double-digit blowout over Republican Stacy Garrity, and with Democratic control of the US House and a state government trifecta within reach.
· 2 sourcesAuthorities in Greece and Turkey have issued severe rainfall and flooding warnings, with a further 100-150mm of rain expected this week in central Greece and western parts of Turkey, as an area of low pressure in the region has allowed powerful thunderstorms to form.
A bride from Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, spent part of her wedding day visiting her father in hospital after he was admitted with heart problems two days before her ceremony. Sinèad Jackson, 36, arrived at Tameside General Hospital an hour before her wedding to show her father Leslie Healy her dress and share a father-daughter slow dance before walking down the aisle.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled that Russia must be allowed to return to International Ice Hockey Federation world championships, overturning the ban imposed after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The decision has drawn immediate criticism from several European ice hockey associations, who say their position against Russia's participation remains unchanged.
· 6 sourcesThe Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a religious liberty challenge to Colorado's decision to bar Catholic preschools from the state's universal preschool programs, a case that carries implications beyond the Centennial State.
Conservative activist James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, and Cam Higby were charged Wednesday in Minnesota with unlawful voting and identity theft after a prosecutor said they gave false names to poll workers during the state’s August primary election.
Former French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, a 2027 presidential candidate for the Horizons party, has been placed under the status of 'assisted witness' in an investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds at the Le Havre Seine Métropole authority, a designation his lawyer said confirms there is nothing to reproach him for.
Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart has said she will 'set out the path ahead early next week' amid mounting speculation she will leave the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). In a Facebook post on Thursday, Lockhart said her decision would be guided by principle and commitment to her constituents, adding: 'Rest assured, I am not going away.' DUP leader Gavin Robinson said he hopes she will not leave the party.
· 4 sourcesThe Houthis are trying to send the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz back to the stone age, the city’s governor has said, reporting that no more than 1,000 cubic metres of water was being allowed to reach the city each day, food stocks were depleted, 120 health centres had been suspended, and 64 people had been killed from August to 20 October 2026.
Police Scotland has confirmed it is carrying out active inquiries into the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor at Balmoral. The force said it had received information and that inquiries were at a 'very early stage', adding that all inquiries are evidence-led with the needs of victim survivors at their heart. The Scottish Daily Express reported that the probe relates to claims women were trafficked to the Aberdeenshire estate.
· 24 sourcesThe Queensland Supreme Court has refused Sam Wood's second application for bail.
· 3 sourcesA cyber bootcamp has been established to counteract the radicalisation of boys, who are increasingly being drawn into extremism via online platforms. Reports suggest that artificial intelligence is speeding up this process, with boys as young as 12 becoming radicalised within weeks in their bedrooms.
· 3 sourcesVictoria's sickest mental health patients are waiting more than a year for a secure hospital bed and ambulances are falling well short of priority response targets, according to 192 annual reports and reviews tabled to state parliament on Friday afternoon.
· 4 sourcesOrganised crime figures are recruiting teenagers off Melbourne streets and through encrypted apps to carry out arson attacks, with police and underworld sources describing a ‘crime-as-a-service’ system that can protect higher-level actors while exploiting those at the bottom.
· 4 sourcesNovaya Gazeta, Russia's last major independent newspaper, announced it is ceasing operations, with its editor-in-chief saying the Russian authorities and security services forced the closure. The paper will formally shut down on November 9.
· 10 sourcesNairobi will become the first African city to host the World Athletics Championships after Kenya's bid won the right to stage the 2029 track and field championships at a World Athletics Council meeting in Budapest on September 15, defeating rival bids from London, Rome and Munich.
President Donald Trump faces a tougher challenge in trying to turn out Republicans who vote mainly when he is on the ballot, Washington Examiner correspondent Byron York argued, as the party confronts close midterm races and fears of losses in deep-red districts.
· 2 sourcesKing Charles III has arrived in Guyana for the second leg of his Caribbean tour, following a visit to the Bahamas that Buckingham Palace described as a 'sensitive balancing act' and a 'diplomatic success'. The two-day state visit to Guyana will focus on the environment, sustainability and growing commercial ties between the UK and Guyana.
A new investigation by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) has linked 25 commanders from Sudan's warring factions to sexual violence in the country's three-year war, as the United Kingdom imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 15 senior commanders over suspected atrocities. The findings cover both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), examining reported abuse across five locations.
Foreign defence contractors awarded UK contracts worth more than £50m will be required to invest an equivalent value back into the British economy under new rules announced by Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, as the government seeks to increase domestic benefit from overseas military procurement.
· 7 sourcesTraders' tools worth thousands of pounds were stolen somewhere in the UK every 20 minutes last year, figures show, with at least 26,164 thefts recorded in 2025 and a Labour MP calling for the government to do more to tackle tool theft.
A fire was reported at an oil refinery in Russia's Samara region after a drone attack that the regional governor blamed on Ukraine, and Russia's defence ministry said it shot down 1,043 Ukrainian drones over Samara and 18 other regions overnight. The attack came as Kyiv was reported to have paused strikes on Russian refineries under pressure from Washington.
· 3 sourcesIsraeli forces blew up the homes of two Palestinians who killed two Israeli soldiers near Hebron last week, as a military siege of the city entered its eighth day, displacing nearly 5,000 people.
· 3 sourcesOpinion writer Matthew Lynn argues that Donald Trump is likely to become a lame-duck president after the November 3 midterm elections, and that paralysis in Washington would be what markets need after the havoc of the past two years.
· 3 sourcesKylian Mbappé has apologised for joking about a meme that superimposes his face on a figure resembling Mao Zedong, after the remark sparked a wave of anger in China, prompted brands to cut ties with him and led China Media Group to suspend broadcasts of La Liga matches.
The US Department of Justice has charged five individuals in an alleged scheme to defraud the federal student aid system, identifying potentially fraudulent aid identification numbers associated with nearly $130 million over two months. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald credited new fraud-detection measures implemented by the Trump administration for the arrests, the first charges in an investigation codenamed Operation Ghostbusters.
· 3 sourcesAustralian Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk has won her first competition since the controversy in Beijing last month, where she continued to race after soiling herself. The 24-year-old from Melbourne cruised to victory in Hamburg on Friday, in the opening round of the 2026-27 Hyrox Elite 15 Series, defeating Lauren Weeks.
· 8 sourcesTasmania's racing integrity commissioner, Sean Carroll, has been accused in parliament of offering premier greyhound trainer Anthony Bullock $300,000 to leave the racing industry, allegations he denies. Labor's Dean Winter, the shadow racing minister, raised the claims under parliamentary privilege on Thursday night, drawing on a sworn statutory declaration supplied by Bullock.
· 3 sourcesEarly voting in the US midterm elections has surged in states with competitive Senate races, with more than 43 million Americans casting ballots so far, nearly 10 million more than in 2022. Texas has seen a pronounced increase, with more than 6.3 million votes cast early as of Wednesday, a 50% rise from four years ago, according to an Associated Press analysis of voting data. In South Carolina, early voting is up 83% as voters choose a successor to the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
· 3 sourcesSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Friday that public trust in the country's high-speed rail network has been 'broken' after a second deadly crash this year, while transport minister Óscar Puente rejected growing calls to resign over the disaster that has killed at least 69 people and left dozens missing. Sánchez, speaking alongside Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano García-Page, said emergency services had confirmed only 13 identities so far, with a further 31 body bags containing partial remains awaiting identification in a process he described as 'very complex'. He said up to 27 nationalities may be among those affected, and 39 of the 110 people hospitalised remained in care.
· 18 sources