The UK government has launched a campaign encouraging households to prepare for emergencies by stockpiling essential items such as water and torches. The initiative aims to improve resilience against disruptions caused by severe weather or cyberattacks.
SAN ANTONIO, USA: The younger sister of Stephen Hubbard, the US citizen freed Wednesday after spending more than four years in a Russian prison, said her brother didn’t realize he was being released until he was put aboard a plane and saw the American flag. “He didn’t know why he was being taken from the prison to Moscow, and he may have thought he was going to his death,” Patricia Hubbard Fox said during an interview Thursday in San Antonio, where her brother was taken for evaluation. “He’s
The ceasefire will allow non-military teams from both countries to visit residents in their homes and coordinate transportation for those wishing to evacuate to either Russia or Ukraine, with an unnamed American media organisation accompanying the teams to document the process, Melania Trump said.
The US has defunded one of the last universities giving Afghan women the chance to receive an education after the Taliban takeover in 2021. DW spoke with a student who says she's lost hope of ever earning a degree.
A number of prominent Irish figures from film, television and music, including Kneecap, Hozier, Aisling Bea, Siobhán McSweeney and Christy Moore, have urged Taoiseach Micheal Martin to intervene on behalf of 55 Gazan students who have been refused study visas.
The appeal comes amid ongoing legal challenges to the visa refusals, with a High Court hearing examining the government's handling of applications from Palestinian students who secured fully funded scholarships at Irish universities.
In an open letter published by the Irish Examiner on Friday, the artists joined other signatories in urging Martin to “do the decent thing” by the students.
The letter cited Martin’s remarks to the United Nations last month, when he said the international community had failed Palestine, and called on him to intervene on the students’ behalf.
“You have the power to act, to stay true to our principles and promises, and grant these young Palestinians the opportunity of an education far from the rubble of Gaza,” the signatories said.
They added that the students were not taking places away from anyone else and had undergone rigorous vetting.
“They provided every document available to them in a warzone, and yet the minister for justice is refusing to grant them study visas. They are caught in a breakdown of co-ordination between Government departments that they did nothing to cause.”
The open letter follows similar appeals earlier this month from academics and the Ireland-Palestine Alliance Sadaka, who urged Martin, also Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, to intervene to resolve what they described as an “appalling injustice”.
They called for the applications of all affected students to be reconsidered properly and in time for the students to be evacuated from Gaza.
High Court challenges visa refusals
The continuing appeals come as legal proceedings challenge the Irish government's refusal of study visas to Palestinian students from Gaza.
During a High Court hearing on Tuesday, lawyers representing the students argued that the decisions were unlawful and irrational, highlighting the difficulties applicants faced in obtaining documentation amid the destruction caused by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The government argued that the refusals were based on applicants’ inability to provide documentary evidence required for the visas.
The case centred on Shaymaa Abudalu, a survivor of the Gaza genocide who reportedly lost several family members, including her mother and siblings.
She had secured a fully funded place on a four-year engineering degree programme at University College Cork (UCC), but was refused a visa.
During the hearing, the court heard that documents confirming Abudalu’s English-language proficiency had been received by the Department of Justice but had not been considered by the official who rejected her application.
Judge Anthony Barr described this as a “substantial hole” in the government’s case.
However, the proceedings were ongoing, and the court had not yet issued a final ruling that the visa refusal was unlawful or ordered it to be set aside.
Following the hearing, Abudalu’s lawyer, Sarah Jane Hillery, said she hoped the case would clarify the issues affecting all the students.
The Irish Examiner reported that the Irish embassy in Tel Aviv processed Palestinian study visa applications last year, rejecting 13 per cent of them.
This year, the Department of Justice has reportedly refused 114 of 138 applications- a rejection rate of 83 per cent- including 55 applications from students in the Gaza Strip.
'My sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children,' Meghan Markle said in a statement.
'My sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children,' Meghan Markle said in a statement.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott emphasizes the necessity of the $46 billion border wall project, despite pause orders from a judge and local opposition. The administration aims to complete the project by the end of Trump’s second term.
Neil Bush and Wayne Thorburn back Talarico over Ken Paxton less than two weeks before midterm elections.
Two prominent Republican voices in Texas have announced their support in recent days for Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton, less than two weeks before the midterm elections, in which Donald Trump’s party risks losing control of Congress.
Neil Bush, son of former President George H.W. Bush (1989-1993) and brother of former President George W. Bush (2001-2009), and Wayne Thorburn, former executive director of the Texas Republican Party, publicly said Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and former teacher, is a figure with the right values to represent Texas in the Senate.
Bush even said he had already cast his early vote for Talarico. Both cited the Democrat’s “character,” and Bush went further, directly attacking Paxton and expressing his “concern” about his conduct and track record.
Paxton, the state’s current attorney general, has a lengthy history of corruption and fraud allegations that even led him to face an impeachment trial in 2023, initiated by his own party in the state Legislature, where he was acquitted. Bush also criticized Paxton’s close ties to Trump, whom he accused of causing “enormous damage” to the Republican Party.
Neil Bush, brother of George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, has broken his longstanding silence on politics to back Democrat James Talarico over Ken Paxton.@Timodc reacts: "Hopefully there are going to be a lot of Neil Bushes out there over the next two weeks." pic.twitter.com/T27wUmJXpw
“I am concerned about a political culture in which loyalty to one person takes precedence over loyalty to principles and in which those in power begin to believe they no longer have to be held accountable,” said Bush, an energy industry businessman.
In 2015, a Collin County grand jury formally indicted Paxton on securities fraud charges. The case was closed in 2024 with a pretrial intervention agreement, without Paxton pleading guilty.
In addition, the Justice Department investigated him over allegations of corruption and abuse of power. The investigations did not result in charges and were closed in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s administration (2021-2025).
BREAKING: George W. Bush's brother Neil just dropped a BOMB on MAGA by proudly announcing that he voted for James Talarico in the Texas Senate race.
This just gave Republicans a flashing green light to vote blue…
Trump’s decision to endorse Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary drew widespread criticism from lawmakers and party strategists. The race for Texas’ Senate seat, which the state has not awarded to a Democrat since 1988, has become one of the most important contests of this election cycle.
More than US$500 million has been spent on advertising in the race overall, according to data from the firm AdImpact cited by U.S. media outlets.
Polls, which for weeks showed Talarico leading Paxton by a few percentage points, have shown the gap narrowing in recent days and now put the Democrat 1.5 points ahead of the attorney general, according to RealClearPolitics.
The British government advised the public on Friday to keep three days of emergency supplies at home, a message it said had been hammered home by this week’s PHP software glitch, as well as a record-setting summer of heat, drought and wildfires.
Governments and businesses worldwide have rushed to secure systems running the PHP programming language after flaws were disclosed on Wednesday, forcing some services offline and triggering millions of hacking attempts in one of the most significant cybersecurity incidents in recent years.
The British government said the internet outage showed the importance of its newly launched “Be Ready” campaign, which advises the public to keep three days of bottled water and non-perishable food in the house.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, hosting a meeting on the response to wildfires, said that in the past Britain had been “on the back foot” responding to emergencies and that it needed to be more proactive.
The government announced a new wildfire response plan that includes deploying military aircraft.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said cyber incidents such as the PHP outage would become more common as AI made it easier to find ways to thwart traditional defences. He also cited risks from hostile states, organised criminals and climate change.
The UK was facing a greater level of threat “than we have certainly for most, if not all, of my lifetime”, he said during an appearance on the BBC’s ‘Question Time’ programme broadcast overnight.
Britain’s advice is similar to that issued by the European Commission, which told EU citizens last year to keep a 72-hour emergency kit containing supplies such as food, water, cash and power banks.
A gunman firing from his car killed one person and wounded five -- including a 12-year-old girl shot eight times -- in the Paris suburbs Friday, with prosecutors investigating a potential "terrorist" act.
The man was "firing at random, wanting to cause a bloodbath" as he drove through the southwestern working-class towns of Trappes and neighbouring La Verriere, Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh said.
Most of the victims were from foreign backgrounds and prosecutors are investigating whether the acts targeted the "real or supposed race, ethnicity, nationality or religion" of the victims.
The 12-year-old girl shot eight times was "seriously wounded" but in a stable condition, the mayor of La Verriere, Nicolas Dainville, told AFP.
The alleged shooter -- a 39-year-old man, according to a source familiar with the case -- was arrested in nearby Coignieres.
Police found him in possession of a submachine gun and tear-gas grenades, according to a police source.
Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation for "murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise."
Rabeh said the man was firing sporadically from his car and that the person killed was "of African origin."
One of the wounded, "in critical condition, is of north African origin," he added.
It was "objectively a racist, probably Islamophobic attack," the mayor said, calling for national unity as the toll rose from an earlier count of four wounded.
Dainville said that two of the wounded in his town -- cleaners attending a school Friday morning when the shooter got out of his car to open fire -- were of African origin.
Laurent Nunez, France's interior minister, travelled to the two affected towns. He called the shooting "clearly a terrorist crime."
Bursts of gunfire
A police source told AFP that the man had fired in bursts from his vehicle around 10:30 am (0830 GMT).
Adel, a resident of Trappes, about 20 kilometres (13 miles) west of Paris, said his "heart was broken" as he learned the victims might have been targeted for their race.
"I'm north African and it's frightening for everyone who has the same background," the 50-year-old told AFP.
Samy, another resident, told AFP he had seen a body on the ground from his window.
His mother, he said, saw a grey Renault Clio car speeding by and heard "loud bangs."
Writing on X, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the case was "very serious" and that "all resources of the security forces and the judiciary are fully mobilised."
President Emmanuel Macron said "the nation is standing with" the victims of this "terrible ordeal."
The shooting came with France on edge following last weekend's riots on the sidelines of mass protests over the cost of living, some of the worst street violence in recent years.
More protests are expected this weekend, but police will be out in force after a week of overnight curfews put in place in cities throughout the country.
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