Top World News
Weather tracker: Japanese islands struck by two successive typhoons
Typhoon Nakri sweeps through Izu Islands off Tokyo, a week after Halong, causing damage and disruptionThe Izu Islands in Japan have endured another powerful blow as Typhoon Nakri swept through on Monday, following in the footsteps of Typhoon Halong, which struck a week earlier.Officials on Hachijojima Island, south of Tokyo, reported disruption and damage to about 220 homes after the storm brought 37mm (1.5in) of rain in one hour and gusts of up to 95mph (152km/h). Airport operations were disrupted, infrastructure damaged, and heavy rainfall caused landslides across the island chain. The typhoon also generated 9-metre waves, creating dangerous coastal conditions. Off the Pacific coast in Oiso, in Kanagawa prefecture, three men were swept away while fishing, one of whom has been confirmed dead. Continue reading...
‘Wailing ghosts through loudspeakers’: Cambodia accuses Thailand of psychological warfare along border
Cambodia’s rights commission said ‘intense, high-pitched noises’ broadcast by Thai soldiers along the disputed border threatened to escalate tensions Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen has complained about Thailand broadcasting ghost-like sounds across a disputed border, while the country’s human rights commission has accused its neighbour of engaging in psychological warfare, despite both countries agreeing to a ceasefire in July.Posting on Facebook, Hun Sen, 73, who now serves as Cambodia’s powerful senate president, said Cambodia’s human rights commission had complained to the United Nations about the “intense, high-pitched noises”. Continue reading...
Four dead as Kenyan security forces fire on crowds mourning Raila Odinga
Thousands gather in Nairobi to pay respects to veteran opposition leader, prompting chaotic scenes at stadiumFour people have been killed in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, after security forces fired shots and teargas to disperse huge crowds at a stadium where the body of the opposition leader Raila Odinga was lying in state.Odinga, a major figure in Kenyan politics for decades who was once a political prisoner and ran unsuccessfully for president five times, died on Wednesday aged 80 in India, where he had been receiving medical treatment. Continue reading...
India casts doubt on Trump’s claims that it has agreed to stop buying Russian oil
The US president claimed Modi had assured him of deal, but Indian officials insist no such conversation took placeIndia has cast doubt on claims by Donald Trump that its prime minister, Narendra Modi, had agreed to stop buying Russian oil.On Wednesday, Trump claimed that Modi had assured him “today” that India would put an end to its purchase of Russian oil. Continue reading...
Last surviving member of first team to conquer Everest dies aged 92
Kanchha Sherpa was part of expedition that put Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary atop world’s highest peak in 1953Kanchha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the mountaineering expedition team that first conquered Mount Everest, has died at the age of 92, according to the Nepal Mountaineering Association.Kanchha died early on Thursday at his home in Kapan, Kathmandu district, said Phur Gelje Sherpa, the association’s president. Continue reading...
Former Bush adviser charged with amassing top secret files
Indian-American Ashley Tellis allegedly obtained US military data and passed envelopes to Chinese officialsA prominent Indian-American academic and former US government adviser has been arrested and charged with the unlawful retention of national security information, including thousands of pages of top secret documents that were found at his home in Virginia.Ashley Tellis, 64, who served on the national security council of the former US president George W Bush and is credited for helping to negotiate the US-India nuclear deal, was arrested and charged over the weekend. Continue reading...
Free speech advocate to Charlie Kirk critics: 'I don't want them to have free speech!'
Conservative radio host and frequent free speech advocate Dennis Kneal declared he didn’t want certain critics of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk to “have free speech” during an appearance on Newsmax Wednesday.Kneel’s comments came amid a discussion on the Trump administration having revoked at least six visas from individuals who made disparaging comments about Kirk in the wake of his killing last month. Those visa revocations came in the wake of Attorney General Pam Bondi vowing to prosecute Americans over “hate speech,” remarks that saw significant pushback from legal experts and MAGA faithful alike.Another guest on the panel was Andrew Craft, a journalist with Fox News, who noted that the Trump administration’s revocation of visas over comments may spark “an interesting free speech case” should “those six foreigners contest it in court.”Kneal, who’s repeatedly championed free speech and has complained about free speech being eroded in the United States, didn’t mince words when making his position on the visa revocations clear.“On one hand, I’m all for free speech,” Kneal said. “But if someone’s coming here and undermining the country and wants to topple our government, then to heck with them, I don’t want them to have free speech! Especially if they are here as our guests.”Kneal, who once declared “free speech” to be “everything,” was largely agreed with on the panel, with Newsmax host Sharla McBride voicing concerns that migrants who criticized Kirk in the wake of his killing “could have violent tendencies.”“It’s really concerning when you have people who are here illegally to begin with, but then they're praising someone’s death, they’re celebrating a murder in broad daylight,” McBride said, despite the legal status of the visa holders still unknown. “So yeah, I think many of us here would agree that at least revoking those visas is a good idea because these people could have violent tendencies.”The Trump administration has championed its targeting of Kirk’s critics, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio declaring that migrants critical of Kirk were “not welcome in this country.”"If you are here on a visa and cheering on the public assassination of a political figure, prepare to be deported," Rubio said.Conservative radio host @denniskneale speaks on the recent Visa revocations for those who made negative comoments about Charlie Kirk:"I don't want them to have free speech!" pic.twitter.com/aYxiRFA7mB— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) October 15, 2025
Raila Odinga, towering Kenyan opposition figure, dies aged 80
Odinga, who ran five times for presidency and had profound influence on Kenyan politics, has died in IndiaThe veteran Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who ran five times for the presidency and had a profound influence on the country’s politics, has died aged 80 in India.Odinga was in the southern city of Kochi for treatment. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that he had a cardiac arrest during a morning walk. Continue reading...
Trump admin slammed for using ethnic cleansing euphemism: ‘Wannabe Nazis’
The Department of Homeland Security relayed a message on social media Tuesday from its official X account: a single word that critics say is a blatant call for ethnic cleansing.“Remigrate,” the post reads, a term that first saw prominence in Europe in the mid-20th century as a call to reverse migration through mass deportation of migrants.“Yet further evidence that the DHS [X] account in particular is run by wannabe Nazis,” wrote British journalist and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan in a social media post Tuesday.The term “remigration” has seen renewed usage in recent years amid the resurgence of far-right political parties across Europe, notably by Austrian political activist Martin Sellner, who’s identified himself as a neo-Nazi. Scholars, like University of South Florida professor Jose Angel Maldonado, have described the term as a “soft type of ethnic cleansing under the guise of deportation and segregation.”“This official government account would appear to be run by far-right trolls deliberately trying to provoke a response by using a term openly associated with ethnic cleansing,” wrote Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, in a social media post on X. “They will likely attack anyone who points this out and express faux-outrage at the suggestion.”Critics were also quick to note that the DHS social media post was made the same day as the bombshell report that revealed leadership of the Young Republicans were engaged in a private group chat that included praise for Adolf Hitler, with at least one person in the chat working in the Trump administration.The Trump administration has drawn scrutiny in the past for its use of the term, with President Donald Trump himself calling for the mass “remigration” of all undocumented immigrants in June, and Trump’s State Department going so far as to consider the establishment of an “Office of Remigration” in May.This official government account would appear to be run by far-right trolls deliberately trying to provoke a response by using a term openly associated with ethnic cleansing. They will likely attack anyone who points this out and express faux-outrage at the suggestion. https://t.co/mlo2JreVnl pic.twitter.com/0NVe5zLkvo— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) October 15, 2025
Thousands trapped in El Fasher siege on ‘edge of survival’, says report
The city – the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the west of the country – has withstood more than 500 days of attacks by paramilitary RSFThe besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher has been declared “uninhabitable” with new data indicating most homes are destroyed and critical levels of malnourishment among people trapped there.The stark assessment comes as the city endures constant artillery and drone attacks, shoehorning its 250,000 starving people into a shrinking urban enclave. Continue reading...
'Applauded for simply showing up': Ivanka buried over treaty signing star turn
The decision by Ivanka Trump to dip her toe back into politics by appearing at the Gaza ceasefire treaty signing on Monday — which she had nothing to do with — left one observer cold.The so-called “first daughter” has been out of the political spotlight despite her father having won a second presidential term on a third try, retiring to her $24 million mansion on Miami's Indian Creek Island where she frequently posts exercise, surfing and fitness videos on Instagram.With her husband, Jared Kushner, being one of the chief negotiators in the ceasefire in Gaza that led to the release of Israeli hostages, Donald Trump’s daughter was singled out and featured at the signing ceremony, which led the Independent’s Holly Baxter to ask why.“Ivanka Trump has re-emerged in Israel this week, smiling beatifically as her father’s admirers cheer and cameras click. She’s radiant, modestly dressed — and, by the way, did you know that when she converted to Judaism in 2009, her father didn’t even know she was going to do it?” Baxter wrote late Monday before dryly noting that Trump's eldest daughter's political resume is now limited to “daughter of Donald, wife of Jared.”Pointing to previous relatives of presidents who have taken center stage for one reason or another, she wrote that, “Ivanka’s most relevant experience, by contrast, is having once been photographed near a peace treaty. She’s an ‘advisor,’ according to the White House, though it’s entirely unclear what she could be qualified to advise on.”Recalling an awkward — and widely ridiculed — Ivanka appearance at the G20 conference in 2017, Baxter noted that didn’t stop her from coming out of the shadows once again and onto the world stage.“It’s a little weird watching Ivanka take a bow for international developments she didn’t engineer. But maybe it’s the perfect image for our era: a woman born into power, blessed by privilege, bathed in soft light, and applauded for simply showing up,” she wrote, and then joked, “If America’s founding fathers could see Ivanka now, they might weep. Or perhaps they’d just shrug and say, ‘Ah. So the monarchy’s back. I guess the experiment failed.’”
'Tip of the iceberg': Prince Andrew interviewer predicts new Epstein links coming
A journalist whose interview with Prince Andrew ended his royal career predicts Jeffrey Epstein's files will ruin more reputations.The Duke of York invited BBC's Emily Maitlis into the palace in November 2019 to discuss his friendship with the disgraced financier shortly after his death in jail — an interview widely considered to be an own goal for the prince, who denied having sex with a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim. The journalist spoke with the United Kingdom's LBC News now after newly revealed emails dispute what the prince told her."None of it quite adds up, does it?" Maitlis said."The narrative from Andrew had always been, 'After I realized who he was, you know, broadly, I ended contact with him,'" Maitlis added. "Now, that doesn't match up because in 2008 [Epstein had] already been a convicted sex offender, he'd served his short prison sentence, and Prince Andrew had told me that he'd broken off contact in 2006, but actually he hadn't."Andrew told her that he ceased contact with Epstein in December 2010, saying he ended their friendship in person during a walk in Central Park that was captured by a paparazzi photo. But the emails show him offering support to Epstein in February 2011 and promising to "keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon.""We still don't know the absolute truth even behind that photo taken in Central Park," Maitlis said. "But much of the reporting has suggested that it was very useful to Epstein because it provided, sort of, kompromat. It links him."The newly revealed emails were dated Feb. 28, 2011, the day after the Mail on Sunday published a now-infamous photo of the prince with Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and teenaged Virginia Giuffre, with whom he later settled a sex abuse lawsuit out of court for an undisclosed sum while denying liability."I mean, the number of people that have ended up lying for Epstein, whose careers have ended up in absolute tatters because of their connection to him," Maitlis said. "I think we're at the tip of the iceberg, I genuinely do."
