General news

• Swinney's emotional explanation for his commitment to independence

  17-10-2026 20:11 via BBC News
  
  BBC Scotland's political editor Glenn Campbell reflects on John Swinney's SNP conference speech.
  
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• At least 68 people killed in high-speed train collision in central Spain

  28-10-2026 19:22 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  By David Latona, Guillermo Martinez and Michael Francis GoreURDA, Spain, Oct 28 (Reuters) - At least 68 people died when a Spanish high-speed express slammed into a stationary train on Wednesday, with rescuers scouring mangled carriages for more bodies after Spain's second fatal rail crash this year and Europe's deadliest since 2013.Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said "all of Spain" was in mourning after the ‌collision, which the transport minister said happened after a Renfe service was authori
  
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• 2 right-wing provocateurs face election-related charges in Minnesota

  28-10-2026 19:07 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  Two right-wing provocateurs, James O'Keefe and Cam Higby, are facing election-related charges in Minnesota after posting videos of an undercover stunt intended to expose alleged deficiencies in election security. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said each man faces a count of unlawful voting and identity theft. "Elections are the bedrock of democracy and their protection is one of our highest priorities," Moriarty said in a statement. "Individuals engaging in unlawful conduct related t
  
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• Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady in split vote ahead of midterm elections

  28-10-2026 19:00 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  Federal Reserve officials voted 10-2 to keep interest rates unchanged, as elevated inflation continues to pose a problem for central bankers. Fed Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented, preferring a quarter-point rate hike.The Fed’s benchmark rates remained in the 3.75% to 4% range, as widely expected. A rate hike in December, however, appears far more likely, according to the Fed's dot plot and fed funds futures.Although recent inflation data came in hotter than
  
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• Federal judge who oversaw Trump, Maduro and 9/11 cases dies at 92

  28-10-2026 17:54 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  NEW YORK (AP) — Alvin K. Hellerstein, a Manhattan federal judge who presided over cases involving President Donald Trump, former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the 9/11 attacks during nearly three decades on the bench, has died. He was 92.Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain announced Hellerstein's death in a statement Wednesday, saying his “energetic and dedicated service to this Court continued until his death.”“He is greatly appreciated and will be sorely missed,” she added.Appo
  
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• Operatives linked to Mary Peltola's campaign sought GOP spoilers, report shows

  28-10-2026 17:04 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  Mary Peltola (AP)Operatives working with Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign sought to recruit candidates who could draw votes from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska, according to an investigation published Wednesday.
  The effort included finding another Alaskan named Dan Sullivan to run against the incumbent, recruiting other potential candidates, and discussing the creation of a conservative political party, The New York Times reports, citing interviews, text messages, and documents pr
  
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• Dolores Huerta, influential labor leader, feminist and civil rights icon, dies at 96

  28-10-2026 16:52 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation's fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!” that became a widespread rallying cry, has died. She was 96. Huerta's family said in a statement through her foundation that she died Wednesday at home.Huerta was born in New Mexico and raised by a single mother in California's San Joaquin Valley, where she worked as a school teacher and then helped found a local chapter
  
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• A record Arab vote brings a new dilemma for Israel's opposition

  28-10-2026 15:30 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  Israel’s Arab-led parties are projected to win a record number of seats in the Israeli parliament, exit polls indicate, making them increasingly hard to ignore by the leading blocs.
  “Probably the most important phenomenon of this election is the rise and the revival of the Arab vote,” Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador, said. “The statement is clear: You cannot disregard such a large portion of the electorate in the calculations for Israeli politics.”
  The latest projections from
  
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• 4 investigations Democrats could launch if they win control of Congress

  28-10-2026 14:07 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  Democrats have signalled a willingness to launch probes into both Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth's handling of the Iran war [Getty Images]
  Democrats in the US Congress are already planning how they would use their power if they win a majority in the House or Senate in next week's midterm elections.Success is by no means guaranteed, even if midterms can sometimes be brutal for the incumbent party that holds the White House. Control of the chamber, however, would give the party power to issue subpo
  
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• At least 64 people killed in high-speed train collision in central Spain

  28-10-2026 14:03 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  By David Latona, Guillermo Martinez and Michael Francis GoreURDA, Spain Oct 28 (Reuters) - Rescue workers in Spain on Wednesday were scouring the wreckage for more ‌bodies at the crash scene where at least 64 people were killed when ‌two high-speed trains collided, in the second deadly railway accident in the country this year.Evacuated passengers streamed along ​a road near the scene, some splattered with blood or with their wounds bandaged, others wheeling suitcases and being given water
  
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• Trump floats Ted Cruz for Supreme Court and jokes about why he'd get every vote

  28-10-2026 14:00 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump floated nominating Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court for a future vacancy on the nation's high court, joking that the Texas Republican senator's confirmation would earn unanimous Senate support because senators from both parties would like to see him gone.
  Trump, who has mentioned Cruz previously for the Supreme Court, suggested the third-term senator again at an Oct. 27 midterm campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas as the president discussed what he might do if he
  
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• Hollywood could get a major lifeline from Congress. California may still lose out.

  28-10-2026 14:00 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  Credit: Chris Smith/TheWrapIn front of the recently refurbished Alex Theatre in Glendale, Calif., flanked by Sen. Adam Schiff and a half-dozen fellow California House Democrats, Rep. Laura Friedman spoke of the urgent need to pass a federal film tax credit to provide a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of film and TV crew members who have struggled as Hollywood production has fled the country.
  “Sixty-five countries offer incentives we don’t match, and no single state can outbid a foreign gov
  
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• Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz makes move to buy struggling Wendy's

  28-10-2026 13:55 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  Wendy's (WEN) may be cooking up burgers for a billionaire soon. Longtime Wendy's investor and former chairman Nelson Peltz of Trian Partners has reportedly offered $1.4 billion to buy the struggling fast food giant, according to an SEC filing.Wendy's shares rose 15% in premarket trading. The company's market cap was $1.17 billion prior to the deal.A Wendy's spokesperson didn't return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Trian Partners didn't return a request for comment. Billionaire Peltz �
  
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• Flávio Bolsonaro's location a mystery as Argentina says he flew to Ecuador

  28-10-2026 13:34 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  Flávio Bolsonaro has not conceded defeat and has called for the election to be annulled [Getty Images]
  There is confusion about the whereabouts of defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, after Brazil cancelled his passports and Argentine officials say he boarded a flight to Ecuador.Sources had told the BBC earlier on Tuesday that Bolsonaro had arrived in the US.But Argentine migration authorities later said he had crossed Brazil's land border with Argentina late on Tuesday
  
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• GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski backs Democrat in Alaska governor's race

  28-10-2026 12:48 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for governor Tuesday, passing over three Republican candidates, including President Donald Trump's pick, Bernadette Wilson.
  Murkowski told Anchorage NBC affiliate KTUU that Alaska needs a governor who can work across party lines, according to NBC News.
  Her endorsement came one week before Election Day in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleav
  
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• At least 30 people killed in high-speed train collision in central Spain

  28-10-2026 11:43 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  By Emma Pinedo and Victoria WalderseeMADRID, Oct 28 (Reuters) - At least 30 people were killed when two high-speed trains ‌collided in Spain on Wednesday, the second deadly accident ‌in less than a year on the line connecting Madrid to the southern ​Andalusia region, regional authorities said.Footage from regional Castilla-La Mancha Television showed a derailed train with at least one carriage remaining on an elevated section of track while twisted metal, broken panels and wreckage could �
  
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• The stock market's best 6 months start Monday, with a 76-year streak on the line

  28-10-2026 11:00 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  The stock market's favorite season starts Monday. For decades, November through April has beaten the rest of the year by a mile.That's the Halloween indicator, also called the “best six months” or "sell in May." Buy stocks at the end of October, hold them through April, then step aside for the summer.Yale Hirsch found the pattern in 1986. "You can divide the year into two sections and have practically all the gains in one six-month section and very little in the other," his son Jeffrey Hirsc
  
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• Jeffries weighs political risks as he tiptoes around Hegseth impeachment

  28-10-2026 11:00 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is tiptoeing around the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, denouncing the Pentagon chief in the sharpest terms but without taking the further step of endorsing Hegseth’s forced removal. 
  Jeffries’s careful approach highlights the delicate dance Democratic leaders are attempting as they seek to balance the various interests in their diverse caucus, especially ahead of next week’s elections when the House is theirs to lose. 
  On on
  
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• Classified material missing from Epstein files, documents suggest

  28-10-2026 11:00 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  Attorney General Todd Blanche has long maintained that the so-called Epstein files, even those kept from the public, contain no secret information related to national security.When the document releases began last winter, Blanche noted that the Epstein Files Transparency Act authorized withholding information in the interest of national security or foreign policy, but said, "no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis.""There's not some tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey E
  
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• Multiple deaths reported in high-speed train collision in Spain

  28-10-2026 10:43 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  MADRID, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Two high-speed trains have collided in Spain on the line connecting Madrid to Spain's southern Andalusia region, rail ‌operator Adif said on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people.The ‌collision comes nine months after an accident between high-speed trains belonging to the same operators on ​the same line that killed 46 people.That crash in January, which occurred after a train derailed and smashed into an oncoming train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province, triggered
  
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• As midterms loom, Justice Department keeps taking aim at Trump foes

  28-10-2026 10:06 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  Attorney General Todd Blanche has been busy.In the run up to the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the nation's most powerful law enforcement official has hit the campaign trail, stumping at the Republican convention in Texas and at rallies for candidates aligned with President Donald Trump in New York and North Carolina.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.The Justice Department, under Blanche's leadership, has filed broad and con
  
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• Flávio Bolsonaro expected to land in Miami as U.S. grants him and his family visas

  28-10-2026 10:05 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  SAO PAULO (AP) — Flávio Bolsonaro, the defeated Brazilian presidential candidate, fled his country to Argentina and then Ecuador alongside his wife and two daughters, Argentina's migration authority said Wednesday — a day after the 45-year-old senator and his family were granted United States visas by the Trump administration.Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. The court had ordered Bolsonaro to
  
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• Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and family land in Miami

  28-10-2026 10:05 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami on Wednesday after fleeing Brazil. The stunning move came after 48 hours in which Bolsonaro refused to concede to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and then threatened to attempt to annul the election result. Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later. On Monday, the
  
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• Trump scraps methane rules days after satellite spots plume near his Texas rally

  28-10-2026 10:00 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled back regulations on a major global warming pollutant — just days after a satellite discovered a large plume of methane pouring out of oil and gas wells near the Lubbock, Texas, campaign rally where Trump made his announcement.Governments and the private sector are deploying a wave of new technology to pinpoint methane leaks like never before. But that technological revolution is colliding with political decisions in the U.S. and Europe to weaken regulat
  
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• Bolsonaro and family to receive U.S. visas after leaving Brazil, State Department says

  28-10-2026 08:50 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  By Ricardo Brito, Gram Slattery and Luciana MagalhaesSAO PAULO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday's presidential election, three sources said, with the US State Department due to grant him and his family entry visas.Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to leftist ‌incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil after refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports.The ruling relates to a m
  
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• Israelis await final election results as Netanyahu remains far from defeated

  28-10-2026 07:09 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  JERUSALEM (AP) — Anxious Israelis watched election results take shape Wednesday after the highest turnout in over a quarter-century, as no clear winner emerged and weeks of negotiating could lie ahead for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an array of opposition parties trying to unseat him.Arab-led parties made a historic showing, but it’s not clear if other opponents of Netanyahu's far-right government would form a coalition with them for a majority in the next parliament. Issues around
  
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• Judge appears skeptical of Trump's push to set aside 20,000 California ballots

  28-10-2026 05:05 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  The federal district judge overseeing the Justice Department's lawsuit asking California to segregate roughly 20,000 ballot belonging to individuals it claims are "likely" noncitizens appeared skeptical of the DOJ's efforts to seek emergency action just a week from the state's election. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said in court Tuesday he intends to appoint a special master to probe DOJ's process that led it to compile the list of alleged 20,000 likely non-citizens, dealing a setback to
  
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• Trump and Talarico draw competing crowds in an unlikely Texas battleground

  28-10-2026 04:12 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  President Trump and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D) shared their competing visions Tuesday as the two held dueling rallies in the Lone Star State one week before the midterm elections.
  Trump did two rallies in Texas — the first in Corpus Christi and another in Lubbock. It’s his fourth trip to Texas to support Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
  Talarico held his own rally in Lubbock on Tuesday. He was in Corpus Christi on Saturday.
  The Texas race is one of the most contested a
  
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• Some oil wells produce little energy but lots of pollution. The EPA wants to ease rules.

  28-10-2026 03:07 via Yahoo.com/news Top Stories
  
  At a campaign rally on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said his administration is going to dismantle restrictions on methane, one of the most common and potent planet-warming greenhouse gases. 
  The new rule, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in response to complaints from the oil and gas industry, revises a Biden-era rule targeting methane leaks and would relax methane monitoring and emission-control requirements. 
  The agency has planned to repeal these rules for months, saying t
  
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• Thick fog to create dangerous driving conditions for UK commuters

  28-10-2026 02:09 via BBC News
  
  After storms across the UK, the weather is set to turn calmer with mist and fog at times over the coming week.
  
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