General news

• Severe drought declared and hosepipe bans in force - is your area affected?

  15-10-2026 17:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Parts of southern England have entered "severe drought", while about 30 million people are under hosepipe ban.
  
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• 11 missing after boat capsizes off Mexico, with survivors showing signs of shark bites

  19-10-2026 12:41 via yahoo.com
  A search is ongoing to find the 11 people missing after a boat carrying 27 people capsized early Friday in the Pacific Ocean. Several of the 16 survivors pulled from the water were treated for injuries consistent with shark bites, the U.S. Coast Guard said.Aircraft and vessels are continuing the search for the missing passengers in waters about 140 miles west of Ensenada, Mexico, after the U.S. Coast Guard received a distress call at 1 a.m. Friday, reporting a vessel taking on water. H
  
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• France's unrest reaches the Louvre after weekend of violence and mass arrests

  19-10-2026 12:09 via yahoo.com
  Protests such as this one in Lyon rocked France over the weekend (Jeff PACHOUD)Protesters blocked the entrance to the Louvre in Paris on Monday, as French authorities scrambled to stem public discontent fuelling mass cost-of-living demonstrations that over the weekend spilled over into some of the worst street violence in recent years.President Emmanuel Macron ordered a security review as the country's interior minister admitted that the police "had lost control" during the weekend's unrest.Unde
  
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• AI is making politicians say things they didn't in attack ads that are already airing

  19-10-2026 11:35 via axios.com
  Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/AxiosAI is producing reality-bending midterm ads about defaced Bibles, upscale dinners and a board game with a "Death to America" playing card.Why it matters: The warnings about deepfakes are coming true. Election laws haven't kept pace with a world where campaigns can put words in opponents' mouths and create realistic-looking scenes that didn't happen. The Wesleyan Media Project found $137 million had been spent on 220 AI-generated ads through Oct. 11, mostly from
  
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• Democrats demand Pentagon disclose cost of Iran war damage to U.S. bases in 8 countries

  19-10-2026 11:09 via usatoday.com
  WASHINGTON – Lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee called on the Pentagon to publicly reveal the total cost of the war in Iran, demanding non-classified answers about the damage to U.S. bases and other military facilities in the Middle East.
  Five Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, that the Trump administration’s "ongoing efforts to hide the true cost of this war are outrageous and unacceptable."
  The letter, fir
  
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• Australian lawmaker critically injured after being deliberately hit by car

  19-10-2026 11:07 via ca.news.yahoo.com
  
  By Alasdair PalSYDNEY, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Australian lawmaker Helen Haines was in a critical ‌condition on Monday after being deliberately struck ‌by a car outside her office in Wangaratta, police ​and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.Victoria Police said a 43-year-old man had been arrested after the attack on independent MP Haines in Wangaratta, around three ‌hours' drive northeast ⁠of Melbourne.Haines, 65, was airlifted to hospital, Albanese said."All of our
  
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• Elon Musk says he plans to give SpaceX stock away to 'every kid in America'

  19-10-2026 11:03 via finance.yahoo.com
  
  Kids will soon have a financial interest in the future of space."Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX (SPCX) shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said in an X post on Monday.Musk didn't specify an age range for the proposed gift.SpaceX stock rose 1% in premarket trading on Monday.There are currently about 73 million children under the age of 18 living in America, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau. That number goes
  
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• Rubio denies U.S. paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine

  19-10-2026 09:14 via ca.news.yahoo.com
  
  By Gram SlatterySAMARKAND, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied on Monday that the United States had paused some ‌intelligence sharing with Ukraine, contradicting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy who said ‌Washington had briefly done just that.Speaking to NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Zelenskiy had said intelligence ​sharing had been interrupted, but later "de-blocked.""We are very thankful for this," he said. "Now it works."But Rubio, speaking t
  
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• Emergency crews in deadly fire at Canada military base faced 'worst conditions imaginable'

  19-10-2026 08:40 via bbc.com
  
  Carney: 'Canada must now serve' service members killed in fire
  Four members of the Canadian military have died and dozens were injured at a base in the province of Alberta after a fire broke out in a grassy training area and spread rapidly due to strong winds.Addressing the nation on Sunday from Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney described it as "one of the worst tragedies for the forces on Canadian soil in peacetime".The fire broke out at about 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT) on Saturday at Canad
  
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• Falling crucifix kills Ecuador priest during livestreamed church service

  19-10-2026 08:34 via independent.co.uk
  
  A Catholic priest was killed after a crucifix fell on him during a livestreamed mass in Ecuador, church officials said.Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari died on Saturday at the Church of Perpetual Relief in Guayaquil, a coastal city about 265km southwest of the capital, Quito, the Archdiocese of Guayaquil said. He was the parish priest at the church.Graphic footage of the mass, which circulated widely on social media before it was taken down, showed a heavy crucifix hanging on the wall be
  
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• Witnesses mistook sounds for gunfire as pickup plowed through Kansas soccer game

  19-10-2026 06:19 via nbcnews.com
  Witnesses of Saturday’s deadly collision in which a pickup truck barreled through a youth soccer game in Kansas, killing two people and injuring nearly a dozen others, said they are haunted by what they saw and heard.Cole Adrian, 6, and Nicholas Schafer, 35, were killed in the incident, which unfolded shortly before 3:30 p.m. at the city-owned Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita, police said.The deceased were both from McPherson, Kansas, but were not related to each other, a Wichita police s
  
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• Putin reportedly proposes summit with Trump and Xi to discuss Ukraine peace deal

  19-10-2026 04:54 via yahoo.com
  Oct 18 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a summit next month with US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping ‌to negotiate an end to the four-year-old Ukraine conflict that would ‌favour Moscow, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the discussions.The proposed summit ​comes amid warming ties between Trump and Putin especially after the US President announced a deal to buy Russian diesel and signed an order on
  
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• Iran warns U.S. against renewed attacks as war nears the 8-month mark

  19-10-2026 04:07 via thehill.com
  Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned against the U.S. renewing attacks, saying on Sunday that Tehran has “unfinished jobs” too.
  “Last time you wanted to ‘finish the job’, Iran emerged even stronger. Want to try your luck again? Be our guest. But be careful; we have unfinished jobs too,” Araghchi wrote on social platform X.
  “Netanyahu is driving America into another war to stay out of jail, whatever the consequences for Israel—let al
  
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• Search for Amelia Earhart's plane hits another dead end after 89 years

  19-10-2026 04:05 via cbsnews.com
  
  A mysterious object discovered near a remote Pacific island is not the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's missing plane, researchers said after an expedition to the site, dealing another setback to efforts to solve one of aviation's greatest mysteries nearly 90 years after the pilot disappeared."Evidence gathered at the Taraia Peninsula on Nikumaroro confirmed that the visual anomaly first seen in satellite imagery in 2020 was likely a collection of large trees deposited along the peninsula's sandspit
  
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• Justice Dept. is suing 30 states over voter data. Even Republicans are pushing back.

  19-10-2026 02:38 via cbsnews.com
  
  With midterm elections just two weeks away, there are concerns that the federal government's pressure on election officials is breeding distrust in the system. Federal agents have seized ballots, and voting machines have been examined. The Justice Department is locked in legal battles with states across the country over information about individual voters and this past week threatened to prosecute California election officials if they knowingly count mail-in ballots from 20,000 people the T
  
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• Obama condemns comments by 'border czar' that Ilhan Omar could be denaturalized

  19-10-2026 01:51 via yahoo.com
  Homeland security officers carry boxes from the Washington DC residence of Ilhan Omar, on 12 October.Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
  Former US president Barack Obama condemned comments by Donald Trump’s “border czar” that the Republican presidential administration could “of course” strip Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of her citizenship and deport her.
  Obama wrote Sunday morning, on X, that “the full weight of the federal government is being brought do
  
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• Trump says Zelensky 'doesn't want to end this war' after Ukraine hits Russian terminal

  19-10-2026 01:42 via cnn.com
  
  Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone attacks this year on Russia overnight on Saturday, hitting a key oil terminal in defiance of US President Donald Trump’s demand it stop hitting Russian energy infrastructure.
  There have been growing tensions between Ukraine and the US in recent days, prompting fears in Kyiv it could lose essential support as it approaches another winter under relentless Russian attack. President Volodymyr Zelensky told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” t
  
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• U.S. resumes intelligence-sharing with Ukraine after pause, Zelensky says

  18-10-2026 23:06 via yahoo.com
  Oct 18 (Reuters) - The United States has resumed providing Ukraine critical intelligence to help it defend against Russian missile strikes, after a brief pause, Ukrainian President ‌Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in comments published on Sunday.Ukraine has relied on US intelligence ‌to spot the fast-moving ballistic missiles that Russia has fired in waves at its cities. US President Donald Trump ​had said earlier this week that Washington was still sharing intelligence, although Ukrain
  
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• Trump endorses Netanyahu just 9 days before Israeli elections

  18-10-2026 21:37 via cnn.com
  
  The relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin and US President Donald Trump, shown in April, 2025, has soured ahead of crucial elections. - Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/FILE
  With just over a week to go until Israel’s election day, President Donald Trump finally gave the full-throated endorsement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had long sought.
  The president called Netanyahu a “Great Warrior Prime Minister” in a post on social media, which he said serves as his &
  
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• Coastal storm threatens East Coast with high winds and flooding

  18-10-2026 21:22 via newsweek.com
  
  A slow-moving coastal storm is expected to bring high winds, flooding and dangerous surf to parts of the East Coast this week, with forecasters also monitoring the system for possible subtropical development.The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Sunday that a storm-force non-tropical low was expected to form off the Southeast coast on Sunday or Sunday night and move “slowly and erratically” through the middle of the week. The agency gave the system a near-zero chance of developmen
  
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• Driver whose truck drove into Kansas soccer game released, pending toxicology tests

  18-10-2026 21:18 via cnn.com
  
  Clipped From Video
  What began as a soccer game on a sunny Saturday in Wichita, Kansas, for children whose loved ones watched on the sidelines ended in tragedy when a woman drove onto the field, killing a 6-year-old boy and a man and injuring 10 others.
  The driver, a 34-year-old who was parked near the soccer fields, barreled through the Stryker Sports Complex around 3:25 p.m. local time, the Wichita Police Department said. Two of the woman’s children were with her in the truck and another
  
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• Rubio says Trump will take up to 60 days to weigh Russia sanctions

  18-10-2026 21:15 via yahoo.com
  By Nandita Bose and Gram SlatteryOct 17 (Reuters) - The day after waiving sanctions and tariffs related to Russian exports, US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he has yet to announce a final decision on ‌the matter, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said officials want more time to evaluate the situation.Rubio said on ‌Saturday that the president will use up to 60 days to assess the economic impact of Russia-related sanctions and tariffs that he waived a day earlier."A ​
  
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• Vance says 'there's a chance' he won't run for president in 2028

  18-10-2026 21:01 via newsmax.com
  Vice President JD Vance (Daniel Heuer-Pool/Getty Images)Despite leading early polls of potential 2028 Republican presidential candidates, Vice President JD Vance says "there's a chance" he won't enter the race.
  Speaking during a CBS News town hall Saturday in Flat Rock, Michigan, Vance acknowledged that family considerations could influence whether he seeks to succeed President Donald Trump.
  "Of course there's a chance," Vance said when asked whether he might sit out the 2028 presidential e
  
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• Jackson doesn't regret telling Collins to 'shut up' after protester interrupted debate

  18-10-2026 19:24 via yahoo.com
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Maine Democrat Troy Jackson says he does not regret telling Sen. Susan Collins that she should “shut up” after the Republican suggested a protester who interrupted their recent debate was one of his campaign's backers."She said that it was a Troy supporter. She accused me of setting that up. I had no idea who it was,” said Jackson, a former president of the state Senate who is trying to deny Collins, the longest-serving Republican woman in Senate history
  
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• 'It's like a war zone': Fresh clashes break out in Paris after historic day of unrest

  18-10-2026 19:03 via uk.news.yahoo.com
  
  By Sybille de La HamaidePARIS, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Fresh clashes broke out in Paris on Sunday a day after France suffered one of its worst days of unrest in years, with protests over high prices leaving one demonstrator dead, thousands arrested and shops across the country looted or damaged.Nationwide demonstrations ‌erupted into riots on Saturday, with a town hall torched, shops ransacked, and buildings covered in graffiti as violent groups clashed with police in cities across the ‌cou
  
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• A timeline of the Cornell rape case, from the alleged 2024 incident to the frat party ban

  18-10-2026 17:31 via yahoo.com
  The investigation into an alleged "gang rape" at Cornell University in October 2024 has drawn nationwide attention after a former student identified as "Jane Doe" filed a civil lawsuit last month, accusing seven fraternity members of drugging and assaulting her for hours.Last week, Cornell announced that it is suspending "all parties and social events" at fraternity houses for the rest of the academic year while an independent review is underway."These measures will provide time for a thorough r
  
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• Trump's D.C. golf course overhaul will close popular links for 15 months

  18-10-2026 17:00 via forbes.com
  ToplineEast Potomac Golf Links, a highly popular municipal golf course in Washington, D.C., and the target of one of President Donald Trump’s contentious renovation projects, will close for 15 months starting in November, the president said on Sunday.An aerial view of the East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C. taken in May 2026.Getty ImagesKey FactsIn a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump shared a map of the redesigned course, which he said would be “open to the Public while,
  
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• Trump approval hits record low, handing Democrats a clear midterm edge

  18-10-2026 16:08 via yahoo.com
  Two weeks from Election Day, Republicans face a bleak political landscape. President Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen to a new low, and support for Democrats in the race for control of Congress is rising as inflationary pressures contribute to an acrid mood among voters, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.Trump's approval among U.S. adults now stands at 33 percent, with 66 percent disapproving; 52 percent said they disapprove strongly. That approval rating is four percen
  
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• What are self-replicating 'AI worms', and why is Anthropic worried about them?

  18-10-2026 15:30 via tech.yahoo.com
  
  ‘Whatever claims the labs are making, they are not warning us enough. We need to understand that nobody can stop the AI storm.’Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
  Warnings about what artificial intelligence might do in the future – together with alarming reports of what it has gotten up to already – are being issued so quickly that even security experts have difficulty triaging what to worry about.
  Yet a report this week from Anthropic’s offensive research team grab
  
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• U.S. taking Putin's side would be a 'historic mistake,' says Zelensky

  18-10-2026 14:21 via nbcnews.com
  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the U.S. formally siding with Russia’s Vladimir Putin would be a “historic mistake,” but said he still sees President Donald Trump as an ally despite a series of moves that have unsettled his country and its friends on Capitol Hill.“We want to trust him,” Zelenskyy told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, referring to Trump. “I hope that he will change his decisions, because I think th
  
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