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Kirk’s widow takes up his cause

The widow of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist assassinated on a college campus last week, has been unanimously elected as the new CEO of Turning Point USA, the group Kirk founded to galvanise young voters to Republican causes. The election of Erika Kirk by Turning Point USA’s board comes at a time when the future of the organisation and its role in turning out young voters in next year’s congressional midterm elections has come under intense scrutiny since Kirk’s murder.

Reuters

Health

Kennedy advisers vote against MMRV shot for under 4s

US vaccine advisers have voted to revise the use of one of two key childhood vaccines under review, another step in US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy’s push to rewrite US immunisation policy. The group, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on US vaccination schedules, recommended against allowing parents to choose the combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine before age 4.

Reuters

Trade

Carney and Sheinbaum team up ahead of pact review

Canada and Mexico have pledged to deepen ties between their two countries, as well as strengthen the free trade pact they share with the United States, during a visit by Prime Minister Mark Carney to Mexico. Carney and President Claudia Sheinbaum said they had agreed to expand economic and security ties and were committed to their partnership with the US. Carney’s visit comes as Canada, Mexico and the US kicked off public consultations this week, ahead of a review of their free trade deal set for next year.

Reuters

USA

3 hours ago

US investment validates Trump invite

For Keir Starmer, securing record levels of US investment into Britain has validated his offer of an unprecedented second state visit to Donald Trump, a high-risk gamble that was designed to keep the unpredictable president on side. Trump celebrated his historic visit to Britain by announcing £150 billion of corporate investment in the UK’s technology, finance and energy sectors. Public opinion was split over whether Starmer was right to cosy up to Trump, but he managed to avoid any public blow-up and the deals agreed gave him a much needed boost after some of the toughest weeks of his premiership.

Reuters

3 hours ago

Economy

Trump asks top court to allow firing of Fed Governor

President Donald Trump’s administration has asked the US Supreme Court to let him move ahead with firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook – a move without precedent since the central bank’s founding in 1913 – in a legal battle that imperils the Fed’s independence. The Justice Department asked the justices to lift US District Judge Jia Cobb’s September 9 order temporarily blocking the Republican president from removing Cook, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden.

Reuters

Russia

Strong quake hits Kamchatka

A strong earthquake has struck Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka region, the regional governor says, prompting a series of tsunami warnings in the region, but despite waves reaching the shore, there were no reports of damage. The US Geological Survey said the quake was measured at a magnitude of 7.8 and at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles). It said a series of aftershocks followed, measuring up to 5.8. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said the quake had a magnitude of 7.2.

Reuters

Infrastructure

Historic tunnel under the Alps connects Italy and Austria

Workers have broken through a final, thin veil of rock, opening an underground tunnel between Austria and Italy that will eventually become a high-speed rail line linking the north and south of Europe. The Brenner Base Tunnel, which is being billed as the world’s longest underground rail connection, is a centrepiece of a European Union drive to shift freight off the roads and onto rail, to cut pollution and boost cross-border trade.

Reuters

Lebanon

Israel attacks Hezbollah

Israel has launched fresh air strikes against Hezbollah military targets in southern Lebanon to stop the militant group rebuilding in the area. The United States brokered a truce in November between Lebanon and Israel after more than a year of conflict sparked by the war in Gaza, but Israel has continued sporadically to attack Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the border.

Reuters

France

6 hours ago

Strikes heap pressure on Macron

Hundreds of thousands took part in anti-austerity protests across France, unions said, urging President Emmanuel Macron and his new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to acknowledge their anger and scrap looming budget cuts. Teachers, train drivers, pharmacists and hospital staff were among those who went on strike as part of the day of protests, while teenagers blocked dozens of high schools for hours.

Reuters

6 hours ago

Russia

7 hours ago

Russia to curb economic growth

President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is deliberately slowing its economic growth in order to suppress inflation and that the world’s second largest oil exporter was far away from a recession. “It is a deliberate action. It is a slowdown in...

Reuters

7 hours ago

Brazil

10 hours ago

Brazil fast-tracks amnesty bill that could include Bolsonaro

Brazil’s lower house of Congress has voted to fast-track an amnesty bill backed by the right-wing opposition that could include relief for former president Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters sentenced to prison for their roles in 2023 riots after his electoral defeat. Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest, was sentenced last week by a Supreme Court panel to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup to overturn the 2022 election, which he lost to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. His sons and supporters have touted legislative amnesty as one of his political avenues to freedom, although the legality of such a move remains contentious. Two Supreme Court justices have already argued that any attempt to pardon those convicted of plotting a coup would be unconstitutional.

Reuters

10 hours ago

USA

‘I hope you know what you’re doing’, Trump tells AI bosses

US President Donald Trump said artificial intelligence was taking over the world and he hoped tech bosses know what they were doing, because he didn’t. Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted business and tech leaders including chipmaker Nvidia’s Jensen Huang as part of the president’s second state visit to Britain. Departing from a script that celebrated the relationship between the two countries, a new tech partnership and hundreds of billions of dollars in investments, Trump acknowledged that he was limited in what he knew about AI.

Reuters

Ukraine

Drones target Russian refinery

Ukraine said that its drones had struck a major oil processing and petrochemical complex and an oil refinery in Russia, part of an intensifying campaign to disrupt Moscow’s oil and gas sector. Ukraine, which has become increasingly frustrated with the pace and direction of peace talks with Russia, has stepped up drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in recent weeks, systematically targeting key facilities to try to reduce Moscow’s export revenues and stir domestic discontent. Russia, which regularly targets Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, calls the attacks “acts of terrorism”. Some parts of Russia have suffered gasoline shortages as a result of the Ukrainian campaign.

Reuters

Egypt

Egypt’s billboard boom strains eyes but raises profits

With whiplash traffic and obstacles ranging from potholes to donkey carts, Cairo’s roads have never been for the faint of heart. But now drivers must contend with another hazard: A proliferation of flashy, mismatched billboards vying for their already strained attention. The number of large billboards lining Cairo’s roads – already numerous – has more than doubled over the past six years, from roughly 2,500 in 2019 to around 6,300 today, according to AdMazad, an advertising and media analytics company. That’s more than 30 per square kilometre of inhabited area, without even counting the new, flashing digital ads, which have grown more than tenfold over the same period to more than 300 today.

Reuters

Middle East

13 hours ago

Blackout signals doom in Gaza

Israeli tanks were seen in two Gaza City areas that are gateways to the city centre, residents said, while internet and phone lines were cut off across the Gaza Strip, a sign that ground operations were likely to escalate imminently. Israeli forces control Gaza City’s eastern suburbs and in recent days have been pounding the Sheikh Radwan and Tel Al-Hawa areas, from where they would be positioned to advance on central and western areas where most of the population is sheltering. ”The disconnection of internet and phone services is a bad omen. It has always been a bad signal something very brutal is going to happen,“ said Ismail, who only gave one name. He was using an e-SIM to connect his phone, a dangerous method as it requires seeking higher ground to receive a signal.

Reuters

13 hours ago

Rescue

Crew airlifted to safety after ship runs aground

A Tanzanian-flagged cargo vessel has run aground off Kefken in Turkey’s Kocaeli province, with all seven crew members airlifted to safety, authorities say. The 81.7-metre-long ship, named RAPID, was grounded at around 05:34 local time (02:34 GMT), the General Directorate of Coastal Safety said. Rescue teams, including fast rescue lifeboats and ground units, were dispatched to the scene. The Interior Ministry’s Coast Guard Command evacuated all seven personnel by helicopter, officials said.

Reuters

India

At least 14 missing after torrential rain floods

At least 14 people are missing and dozens have been injured after torrential rain caused flooding in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, the state’s chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, says. The downpour struck Chamoli district late on Wednesday night, sending torrents of water, mud and rocks through hillside communities and burying several houses under debris.

Reuters

Security

Three accused as Russian spies

British police have arrested three people suspected of assisting a foreign intelligence service, saying the investigation related to Russia, the latest allegation of spying activities on behalf of Moscow in Britain. The three, two men, aged 41 and 46, and a 35-year-old woman, were arrested in Essex, east of London, accused of offences under the National Security Act, which was brought in two years ago to give new powers to target threats from foreign states.

Reuters

Migration

First migrant deported under ‘one in, one out’ scheme

Britain has returned the first migrant to France under a “one in, one out” agreement to remove people who arrive on small boats, the interior ministry says. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed a pilot scheme, which would see Britain deporting to France undocumented people arriving in small boats, in return for accepting an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers with British family connections.

Reuters