Nigeria is the latest country to report an Ebola case as the outbreak spreads across the region. Kenya confirmed its first case earlier this month and has since recorded nine infections.
(Image credit: Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Police on Tuesday charged a driver with intentionally causing serious injury to an Australian federal lawmaker who is in critical condition after being struck by a car in an apparent escalation in political violence that has shocked the nation.
Helen Haines, a 65-year-old independent politician, was in hospital in critical but stable condition after being struck by a car outside her office in the city of Wangaratta, in Victoria state, on Monday in what police alleged was a “targeted” incident.
Brendan Nugent, from nearby Tarrawingee, was charged with intentionally causing serious injury, dangerous driving causing serious injury and causing harm to a federal official, police said in a statement on Tuesday.
Nugent has been in police custody since shortly after Haines was injured and a crowd of bystanders subdued him. He will appear in a Wangaratta court on Wednesday, when he could potentially be released on bail.
His father, Rod Nugent, released a statement Tuesday describing Haines as a “deeply respected, valued and much-loved member of our local community.”
“Helen has been our friend for more than 20 years and what happened to her yesterday is devastating and unfathomable,” the father said, adding that he would cooperate with police.
The incident shocked Australians as political violence is rare here and politicians have always been accessible to the public. Most lawmakers are not accompanied by security officers and go about their work and personal lives on their own.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he phoned local barber Ricky Jefferies, who had run from his store to help members of the public detain the suspect, to thank him on Tuesday for intervening.
“It’s a reminder that at the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character,” Albanese said in Melbourne.
Jefferies earlier told reporters he searched the driver’s pockets and removed a knife. Police confirmed a knife had been found. Jefferies also said he did not consider himself a hero.
“It was crazy,” he said. “A lot of people got involved immediately and they didn’t even check for danger. They just ran to help.”
Haines’s family released a statement expressing thanks for the “swift assistance of bystanders” as well as health workers and police.
Haines, who was first elected to Parliament in 2019 and had been reelected twice since, was initially taken to a hospital in Wangaratta, a city of 30,000 people. She was airlifted later on Monday to a hospital in the state capital, Melbourne, 147 miles away.
The Alfred Hospital didn’t respond Tuesday to a request for comment on media reports that Haines had had a leg amputated.
Albanese announced on Monday that the national counterterrorism team was investigating, incorporating police and intelligence agencies. Police have since said the incident appears to be isolated.
“This wasn’t an accident. There was a deliberate act, it would appear. We don’t know what the motivation is,” he said.
Recent data has shown that threats of political violence have grown in Australia. The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation spy agency, Mike Burgess, on Tuesday reiterated an earlier warning that politically motivated violence was a top security concern, along with espionage and foreign interference.
Police reported in 2025 that threats against parliamentarians had doubled over the past three years. Official data showed more than 1,000 such threats against politicians in the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
Albanese and lawmakers from across the political spectrum spoke to media outlets Tuesday, urging their colleagues, reporters and the public to turn down the heat in increasingly fractious political debates. Many also said they hoped Australia’s easygoing culture of approachable politicians wouldn’t change.
Haines was not known for polarizing views. The daughter of dairy farmers and mother of three was a nurse, midwife and academic before entering politics, and advocated for rural health matters. She was initially elected in 2019 with a campaign focused on health equity, rural prosperity and climate action.
Albanese said eyewitnesses had reported the suspect passed Haines in his SUV as she stood by the trunk of her parked car. The SUV then turned and came back before the driver allegedly drove into the politician, the prime minister said.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the driver allegedly reversed and struck Haines a second time, pinning her against her car, after initially hitting her.
One of the bystanders who came to Haines’ assistance, Cody Lepoidevin, told reporters he thought he was witnessing a hit-and-run when the SUV backed away after she was first struck.
But instead of fleeing the scene, Lepoidevin said the driver “then reversed and drove back into her.”
Elsewhere in the world, authorities have warned of growing threats to lawmakers. The United States has seen a rise in political violence over the past decade.
That includes the 2022 hammer assault on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, in California; the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally during his presidential campaign, as well as another on the president at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April; and the assassinations in 2025 of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in Utah.
In Britain, killings of politicians have also prompted bolstered security. Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, while Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the militant Islamic State group.
In July, the former British politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe was found beaten to death with a hammer at her home. A man has been charged with murder and terrorism-related offenses.
The post Australian lawmaker reportedly loses leg after hit by car, police say driver targeted her appeared first on MS NOW.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine, killing at least four people, officials said Tuesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scrambled to ensure more American and European help during a visit to Norway.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who along with Jared Kushner has tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a settlement and end the war, was also expected in Oslo, the Norwegian government said. Kushner, who is U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, will attend the meeting by videoconference.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb were due to meet with Zelenskyy in Norway’s capital.
With further U.S. support for Ukraine in doubt as relations between Zelenskyy and Trump sour again, the Ukrainian leader said that he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is on a trip to Asia.
That conversation came after Zelenskyy told a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Monday that he believes “some political decision has been made to slow down … support for us.”
Ukraine nearly has run out of American-made Patriot air defense interceptors that it needs to stop Russia’s ballistic missiles, according to Zelenskyy, who has pleaded for Washington to send more. But he said that the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that other countries have purchased for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy also said that he sought Rubio’s help to ensure that the U.S. continues to share vital intelligence with Ukraine after Kyiv received no, or late, warnings about Russian missile attacks in recent days.
On top of that, Zelenskyy said that speed restrictions were still in place on Kyiv’s use of the military-grade version of U.S. company SpaceX’s satellite internet service, hampering battlefield operations.
Trump has also waived sanctions on Russia, a move which Zelenskyy slammed as helping Russian President Vladimir Putin push on with Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which will hit the five-year mark in February.
Zelenskyy said that he had “a substantive conversation” with Rubio.
“I am grateful for his readiness to help and his clear position,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
With the Russian army held up on the front line, Putin is trying to bomb Ukraine into submission while robbing it of vital U.S. support, Western leaders and analysts say.
European countries, worried by Russia’s plans on the continent, are trying to take up the slack of any falloff in U.S. supplies, but some key assets are American-made.
Four people were killed and 27 others wounded, including children, in Russian missile and drone attacks on the Kyiv region over the past day, regional police said.
Three people were killed and six wounded in the Obukhiv district, where warehouses were damaged, police said. In the Bucha district, one woman was killed and 21 people were wounded, eight of them children, and hundreds of buildings were damaged, according to police.
Russia also attacked energy facilities in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight, causing power outages in some areas, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration. No one was injured, he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces carried out drone strikes on logistics centers, port infrastructure, and three cargo ships in the port of Reni in the Odesa region. It said another bulk carrier was hit at sea on its way to Odesa.
Meanwhile, air defenses intercepted 136 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions overnight, the Defense Ministry said.
A fire broke out at an unspecified industrial facility in the Tambov region as a result of the attack, Gov. Yevgeny Pervyshov said.
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The Rays will face the NL champion Milwaukee Brewers in the first matchup in which both teams are seeking their first World Series title since 1980.
(Image credit: David J. Phillip)
The Rays will face the NL champion Milwaukee Brewers in the first matchup in which both teams are seeking their first World Series title since 1980.
(Image credit: David J. Phillip)
Voters in Canada's oil-rich Alberta province overwhelmingly backed remaining in Canada, with early referendum results Tuesday delivering a boost to Prime Minister Carney's push for national unity.
(Image credit: James Maclennan)
Voters in Canada's oil-rich Alberta province overwhelmingly backed remaining in Canada, with early referendum results Tuesday delivering a boost to Prime Minister Carney's push for national unity.
(Image credit: James Maclennan)
ABU SNIN, Israel (AP) — Israeli police said they arrested 10 people on Monday in connection with a wave of settler violence that included attacks on villagers, an American journalist and European diplomats in the occupied West Bank over the weekend.
Israel had come under heavy international criticism for the attacks. Israeli police did not identify the suspects or specify their potential roles in the attacks, which came during a spike in settler violence during the annual Palestinian olive harvest season.
On Friday, Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was beaten by a crowd of young male settlers, leaving her with several broken ribs and vertebrae in the village of Abu Falah. She also underwent surgery on a finger that was nearly severed and is recovering from what appeared to be stab wounds to her lower body, which required stitches.
A day later, masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats and others visiting the Christian village of Taybeh.
Settler violence has surged in recent years, and rights groups say that attackers are rarely arrested or punished for attacks on Palestinians.
From her hospital bed Sunday, Levine said she was “shocked and insulted” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had cast doubt on the attack, which was witnessed by a crowd of people, by calling it “alleged.”
The attackers targeted Palestinian villagers, setting fire to the olive trees they were harvesting
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee condemned the attack as a “despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards” and said they should spend years in prison. Israel’s president and several opposition politicians also spoke out against the attack.
The attack on diplomats targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives. “Impunity for violent settlers must end,” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said afterward.
Israeli police said they have been collecting evidence and witness statements since the weekend attacks. The suspects were transferred for questioning. They said the Shin Bet internal security agency, the paramilitary border police force and the Israeli military had all participated in the investigation.
Police said Monday’s operation also targeted people suspected of violating military orders declaring a closed military zone and offenses involving illegal construction. They said they seized several vehicles and items linking suspects to alleged offenses.
The post Israeli police arrest 10 after weekend attacks by settlers on journalist and diplomats appeared first on MS NOW.
PARIS (AP) — French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu says he has instructed prefects to impose “very limited” and “localized” curfews in cities to prevent more rioting and looting, after this weekend’s violence targeted city halls, other public buildings and hundreds of businesses across the country.
Speaking after an emergency meeting with top government officials, Lecornu said that “on Saturday, despite scenes of severe violence and extensive property damage, no one was killed, and that is a miracle” as he defended the work of police officers faced with violent groups of people.
Lecornu said details of the areas to be placed under curfew will be provided later Monday.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez offered his resignation on Sunday, but President Emmanuel Macron refused the resignation, “given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context,” Macron’s office said in a statement Monday.
Macron instructed Nuñez “to take all necessary steps to ensure full transparency about the failures in planning and intelligence-gathering that led to the violence,” the statement said.
Macron also asked for “new policing tactics on the ground as quickly as possible” to put an end to violent events.
On Sunday evening, groups of people set fires to trash bins, bicycles and other objects in the streets and looted businesses in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities. Major violence erupted Saturday during nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. At least 2,400 people were arrested across the country, authorities said.
“I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything that is happening,” Nuñez said, speaking on France Inter radio. “Now, the real issue is ensuring that this doesn’t happen again. … We obviously need to be better at anticipating the kind of mobilization that is unfolding.”
Nuñez blamed violence on “hordes of troublemakers and looters” and “far-left activists” and acknowledged that police strategy needs to be adapted “in the face of extremely mobile groups.” Authorities said groups of hundreds of people sought confrontations with police and targeted public buildings, including city halls and other public offices.
Nuñez acknowledged that authorities had “lost control” in some major cities on Saturday, with hundreds of businesses looted.
“You can’t look shopkeepers in the eye when hundreds of businesses have been looted and say we haven’t lost control in some of these major cities. Obviously,” Nuñez said.
Flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall in Limoges, in central France, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.
In Marseille, the prefect banned any protest or other gathering from noon to 8 p.m. Monday.
The post France’s prime minister calls for local curfews in cities to curb rioting appeared first on MS NOW.
A car hit an Australian federal independent lawmaker on Monday, critically injuring her in an apparent deliberate attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. The driver was arrested.
(Image credit: Mick Tsikas)
A car hit an Australian federal independent lawmaker on Monday, critically injuring her in an apparent deliberate attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. The driver was arrested.
(Image credit: Mick Tsikas)
Trump said in a post on social media that Netanyahu "has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran."
(Image credit: Alex Brandon)
Trump said in a post on social media that Netanyahu "has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran."
(Image credit: Alex Brandon)
Trump said in a post on social media that Netanyahu "has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran."
(Image credit: Alex Brandon)
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday voiced the public’s “anger” and “shame” over rioting and looting during nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. At least 1,800 people have been arrested.
“Those who looted will have to pay back for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable,” Macron said in a televised address to the nation.
He blamed “unrestrained violence” on “insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals.”
Macron has earlier held an emergency meeting with senior government officials, a day after masked groups set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities. He said he had instructed prefects to work with mayors to protect public buildings and businesses in the coming weeks, including by banning protests when necessary.
Flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall in the city of Limoges, in central France, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.
Hundreds of protesters gathered again on Sunday at the Place de la République in Paris amid a heavy police presence. Officers used tear gas as tensions flared sporadically in the neighborhood, with small groups of people trying to set bicycles and trash bins on fire.
“The right to protest is a fundamental right. Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez wrote on X, citing the looting of hundreds of businesses in cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux.
About 550,000 people took part in protests across France, according to authorities, while organizers put the figure at about 800,000. Demonstrators answered calls from a labor union, student organizations and activists hoping to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 to protest social injustice.
Mass protests in France are often marred by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, leading to clashes with police. The arrest tally reported Sunday approached the nearly 2,000 recorded nationwide during a single day of yellow vest protests in December 2018.
One person died of a heart attack, Paris police said in a statement, without providing details. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it was investigating.
Dislodged cobblestones, shattered storefronts and broken glass littered the area around Paris’ Place de la République on Sunday. Looting and damage were also reported in other tourist and shopping districts.
Paris police said 855 people were arrested in the capital region. The city’s prosecutor’s office said 557 remained in police custody.
“I am actually stunned by the level of destruction and violence that was expressed,” said government employee Marie Peyreigne, 57, wondering what had led to the mayhem.
Parisians inspecting the damage photographed the partially dismantled base of the square’s central monument, a statue of Marianne, a symbol of France.
Jean Foissy, 74, said he had wanted to join the protest but encountered “a wall of riot police and fires everywhere” and returned home.
“I was very scared,” he said. “I’ve been a Parisian since I was born, so when I got here, it almost made me want to cry because I find it so bad, it hurts me.”
Margaux Eude, 26, said she supported the protest movement but “didn’t think it would escalate like this.”
“It’s the troublemakers who came, and it breaks my heart because it delegitimizes the movement,” she said.
Political leaders across the spectrum sought to parlay the fallout of Saturday’s riots into political capital, looking ahead to next spring’s presidential election.
Far-right leader and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen criticized Macron’s centrist government as “exhausted, disoriented and seemingly incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own powerlessness,” in a video posted Sunday on social media.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for his part, accused Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu of “playing with fire,” alleging that “by banking on degradation, you have only succeeded in uniting all youths and workers’ unions.”
Mélenchon, who joined the Paris march Saturday, insisted that “my message is clear: those who share our fight have no business in looting or destruction.”
U.S. President Donald Trump posted “France is burning!” on his Truth Social platform, apparently linking the unrest to “the immigration of people from an entirely different world.”
“Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!” he wrote.
French authorities and police have not linked immigrants to the rioting and have repeatedly attributed some of the violence to “radical far-left groups” and other people who joined to loot.
“The scale of the damage is considerable and unprecedented,” Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire wrote in an open letter. “Paris is a city of freedoms, debate and demonstrations. It must remain so. But it must also be a city where everyone can work and run a business safely.”
Police said groups of hundreds of people formed unauthorized marches across central Paris on Saturday. “By late afternoon, a new phase began with the arrival of large numbers of people whose sole aim was to steal and loot, taking advantage of the unrest,” police said.
The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon, the three largest cities, requested a meeting with the prime minister in the coming days “given the extent of the damage and the seriousness of the situation.”
In the southern port city of Marseille, some protesters briefly forced their way into the lobby of City Hall and a group of people wearing hoods and masks damaged a police station. In Lyon, a fire broke out inside a tourist office.
In Limoges, a group of “radical troublemakers” broke into City Hall while there were elected officials, employees, security personnel and members of the public inside, Maurice Barate, prefect of the Haute-Vienne region, said. “Despite the presence of so many people, they deliberately set the building on fire. It is an extremely serious and unspeakable act.”
In eastern France, the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office said an investigation has been opened after a 17-year-old girl was injured during the protests and lost an eye. On Saturday, another investigation was opened after a young protester lost a hand in Saint-Etienne.
The injuries come as police have drawn sharp scrutiny over their use of grenades and other riot-control weapons during recent demonstrations.
The post France’s Macron vows to hold accountable those who ‘sought to bring down the Republic’ appeared first on MS NOW.
Pope Leo XIV thanked thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square on Sunday for their prayers while he was hospitalized, and said he plans to gradually return to his usual duties.
(Image credit: Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV thanked thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square on Sunday for their prayers while he was hospitalized, and said he plans to gradually return to his usual duties.
(Image credit: Alessandra Tarantino)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described the incident as one of the worst peacetime tragedies for Canada's military on domestic soil.
(Image credit: John Ulan)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described the incident as one of the worst peacetime tragedies for Canada's military on domestic soil.
(Image credit: John Ulan)
Police arrested at least 1,800 people across France after violent groups clashed with officers and looted shops during nationwide demonstrations that drew hundreds of thousands of people.
(Image credit: Emma Da Silva)
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