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Paul Mackenzie convicted over deaths of children and one adult after followers were ordered to starve themselves and their familiesThe leader of a Kenyan doomsday sect has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children and one adult in one of the world’s worst cult disasters in recent history.The sentence, comprising 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years by direct homicide, came two weeks after the court in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa found the cult leader guilty of the crimes. Continue reading...

Former liberation movement’s share of national vote almost 14 percentage points below 2021 resultThe African National Congress is on course to suffer a bruising defeat in South Africa’s local elections, with the once dominant party of Nelson Mandela falling to under a third of the vote nationally with more than 80% of ballots counted.Wednesday’s fragmented vote marks another stage in the decline of the ANC, which has led national governments since the end of white minority apartheid rule in 1994. High unemployment, crime, corruption and poor local service delivery have all contributed to voters turning away from the party. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump's feud with Pope Leo XIV came back to bite Republicans in a big way, according to a new analysis.Catholic voters backed Democrats for Congress 50 percent to 49 percent in Tuesday's midterm elections, according to the NBC News exit poll, Christopher Hale wrote Thursday in his Substack newsletter, Letters from Leo.Two years earlier, the same poll had Catholics favoring Republicans 59 percent to 39 percent, Hale noted, citing Religion News Service. The 21-point swing in the margin arrived in the first midterm since the Chicago native was elected pope.Catholics accounted for about one in five ballots, according to Hale, who wrote that Democrats won the national House vote by roughly 13 points and recaptured the Senate.Hale tied the shift to the GOP's open hostility toward the pontiff. In April, Trump branded Leo "weak" on crime and "terrible" on foreign policy, Vice President JD Vance warned him to be careful opining on theology and House Speaker Mike Johnson lectured him on "something called the just war doctrine," Hale wrote."Seven months later, Catholic voters had their say," he wrote.Trump's standing with the group had already cratered by October, when his approval among Catholics sat at 30 percent, down from 47 percent when he returned to office, according to Hale.Younger and nonwhite Catholics powered much of the change. Citing Will Martino's reporting in America magazine, Hale wrote that Democrats won 65 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 65 percent of Catholics under 29, along with 87 percent of Black Catholics. Catholic women also favored Democrats, while white Catholics and Catholic men still tilted Republican.Vance, a Catholic convert, blamed the Republican collapse on the war in Iran, Hale wrote, while Washington University political scientist Ryan Burge told America the economy was the culprit. Hale argued both were describing the same break, pointing out that Leo spent the year urging Americans to end the war while the White House waved him off.Hale cautioned that exit polls are early estimates and the Catholic figure could shift by a point or two once voter-file studies come in. But he argued no such adjustment would wipe out a move of that size.He ended with a rallying cry. "Just as God raised up a pope from behind the Iron Curtain to help defeat communism, God has raised up a pope from the Americas to defeat MAGA authoritarianism," Hale wrote. "Over the next two years, our task is to send MAGA to the dustbin of history."

A federal judge warned the Trump administration she would start contempt proceedings if it deported Iranian detainees without first notifying her court, according to court records unsealed Thursday that reveal secret U.S. talks with Iran about deportations during the war, the Associated Press reported.“We are at war with a country where the President of the United States has said, as recently as two or three days ago, if not yesterday, that it is essentially lawless,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said at the Oct. 15 hearing, pointing to Trump’s own accusation that Iran had killed tens of thousands of protesters.Reyes then asked whether the administration still planned to send people back to a country the U.S. was bombing, where she said they faced “a serious threat of certain death.”“Yes, your honor,” DOJ lawyer Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel replied. “The government is executing lawful orders of removal.”Reyes required the administration to alert the court when deportation plans are finalized and give five days’ written notice before carrying them out. In a filing Wednesday, the DOJ argued the threat of sanctions effectively turned the notice requirement into an injunction, according to the report.The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, which brought the lawsuit, said Thursday Iranian consular officials had told at least 12 ICE detainees in the past week that they would be flown to Iran through Pakistan. The group said U.S. immigration authorities had given those detainees nothing in writing.The lawsuit alleges that U.S. immigration officials shared confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with Tehran. The Department of Homeland Security has denied sharing asylum application records with Iran."Activists abroad have expressed concern about deportees returning to Iran, whose theocracy has been cracking down on intellectuals and where the government vociferously cracks down on any dissent," the AP reported Thursday.

President Donald Trump left Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade confused Tuesday after casually revealing that he had brokered a deal to end U.S. aid to Israel “by the end of this year.”Calling into Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Trump boasted about his administration’s accomplishments on border security and accused former President Joe Biden of allowing noncitizens “who hate Israel” to come into the country “by the millions.” Trump then pivoted to reveal a supposed deal he had brokered with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.“As far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal… we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping [payments], and they’re fine with it, because they’ve become a very successful country, they don’t need it, and we won’t be paying anymore, Israel,” Trump said. “So it’s just a wasted thing because we’ve already agreed that by the end of this year, we won’t be paying Israel. Now, we’ll help Israel if they need it, you know, they’ve been a great ally and we’ve been the greatest of all allies — to many, many countries, we’ve been great to many countries!”Discussions about ending U.S. aid to Israel — the single largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in history, having received more than $300 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars since its founding in 1948 — gained traction this year. However, discussions have centered on a plan to phase out aid over a decade, not by the end of this year.Netanyahu has backed the plan to phase out U.S. aid but has also championed a separate push to integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries in an “unprecedented” fashion, one critics warn would be near-impossible to unwind.Trump’s remark immediately caught the attention of Kilmeade, who jumped in to clarify what the president meant.“So, Mr. President, you’re saying you’re not giving them $4 billion worth of weapons?” Kilmeade asked, likely referencing the roughly $4 billion in military assistance the United States gives to Israel every year.Trump brushed off the question and instead bragged that the U.S. had secured “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz — a claim undercut by U.S. strikes in the strait Monday — as Kilmeade tried, and failed, to pin him down.“You’re not — you’re no longer — you’re not — OK,” Kilmeade said, unsuccessfully trying to get Trump to answer his question.Later in the interview, Kilmeade pressed Trump on the matter again, to which the president finally responded.“Why? Because they don’t need it, Brian,” Trump said. "By the end of this year, we won't be paying Israel"- Trump just now on Fox News https://t.co/6vqTKEeIOm— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) November 3, 2026

Guardian and Mongabay reveal approaches to officials and MPs on behalf of Vantara zoo ahead of UK-chaired Cites meeting on endangered animal importsBritish government ministers were told not to engage formally with Vantara, the controversial mega-zoo run by the Indian billionaire Anant Ambani, after lobbying efforts by the private animal sanctuary in the run-up to a UK-chaired meeting on the trade in endangered species, according to documents.This week, the UK heads a 32-country committee meeting in Geneva of Cites, the United Nations body that regulates trade in endangered species. The meeting will examine how India has responded to compliance concerns about imports of endangered animals. Continue reading...

The Trump administration sparked immediate outrage after it conducted what some described as a "secret" bombing campaign on the eve of the midterm elections. Barak Ravid, global affairs correspondent for Axios, reported Monday night that a U.S. fighter jet destroyed an Iranian weapon on Qeshm Island. The strikes mark a significant escalation in the conflict as the Trump administration braces for a midterm election where Republicans are expected to lose the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate as well. "Senior U.S. official: A U.S. Army fighter jet conducted a self-defense strike and destroyed a surface-to-air missile launcher on Qeshm Island after the Revolutionary Guards launched an anti-aircraft missile from it," Ravid posted on X. The move outraged Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council."After eight months of an illegal war, there was finally some hope that a diplomatic agreement might be within reach and this war could end through negotiations rather than spiral into the violent scenarios being threatened after the midterm elections. But these deeply alarming revelations suggest we may be heading in precisely the opposite direction," he said in a statement.

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reports that a military source of his gives even odds that the U.S. will strike Iran after the midterms — but says any attack would be smaller than first planned.Klippenstein writes that President Donald Trump’s plan for a decisive attack on Iran is now in doubt. Trump said last month the U.S. would not attack before the election, but Klippenstein says target sets were drafted and forces were being positioned, including a third aircraft carrier and two amphibious groups carrying about two dozen additional F-35s.Gulf Arab allies, he says, told Washington they would help defend themselves but would not join an offensive.He reports the plan frayed further when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost his majority, leaving planners unable to count on Israel until a new government forms.In his account, Hegseth told the White House that a sea-based strike without Israel or Gulf bases remained workable. Gulf states objected to hitting energy infrastructure, and some military leaders warned that strikes on power production might violate the law of war. Hegseth responded by firing Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the top Joint Chiefs war planner, Klippenstein says.Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said last week, “Their plan is insane,” and predicted “devastating escalation.”Klippenstein says Murphy was referring to classified briefings. Citing military sources, he writes that Trump has criticized the proposed attack as “uninspired, worthless, and weak” and wants Iran’s nuclear program as its focus. He says Trump hinted on Halloween at hitting one or two remaining nuclear sites.Additionally, Iran has threatened retaliation beyond the Middle East, and people in Trump’s orbit have discussed responding at home with a national emergency, wrote Klippenstein.