Actor also had roles in M*A*S*H, A River Runs Through It and Picket Fences in career spanning 60 years
Tom Skerritt, the actor known for roles in Alien and Top Gun, has died at the age of 93.
His publicist confirmed to Variety that he died from natural causes.
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© Photograph: Reed Saxon/AP
© Photograph: Reed Saxon/AP
© Photograph: Reed Saxon/AP
Becky Drury says she was hit by gunfire before she could intervene in attack that killed four, including three children
A teacher wounded in last week’s shooting at a Bend, Oregon, elementary school shared her account of the incident, and how she was shot before she could intervene and “[pretended] to be dead”.
Becky Drury was seriously wounded at Silver Rail elementary when Griffin J John II, a 16-year-old former student at the school armed with a shotgun, broke in and headed toward a special education classroom. He shot six people, killing Megan Lambert, a 25-year-old teacher, and three children, including five-year-old Rhoam Summer.
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© Photograph: Zack Hall/Drury family/AP
© Photograph: Zack Hall/Drury family/AP
© Photograph: Zack Hall/Drury family/AP
Republican Mike DeWine said ad featuring estranged mother of Democrat Amy Acton was ‘wrong’, drawing ire of president
Donald Trump issued a swift rebuke against Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, who on Thursday said gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was “wrong” to release an ad critical of his Democratic rival Amy Acton that featured her estranged mother.
DeWine had implored Ramaswamy to take the ad down, but hours later, Trump urged Ramaswamy to keep airing it and accused the Republican governor of disloyalty.
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© Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP
© Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP
© Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP
‘Political candidates’ once reflexive support for Israel has increasingly become a liability
When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most prominent pro-Israel lobby group in the US, announced on Wednesday that it would stop endorsing candidates or make direct contributions to them, its many critics were quick to hail the development as Aipac’s admission of how toxic its brand had become.
The announcement marked a significant reversal that underscored just how profoundly US public opinion of Israel has shifted over the latest war in Gaza, and how political candidates’ once reflexive support for Israel has increasingly become a liability.
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© Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
© Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
© Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
New account from Pike’s lawyer suggests team was racked by doubts even before pentobarbital began to flow
The Tennessee execution team tasked with setting an intravenous line in the arms of the death row prisoner Christa Pike through which she could be injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital repeatedly warned that her vein might be “blowing”, before they went ahead with the procedure, her lawyer has revealed.
Members of the intravenous (IV) team used up to 10 needles as they sought to establish a line through which Pike could be killed with a massive dose of the sedative. About 20 minutes into the attempt, they began discussing among themselves whether the prisoner’s vein “might be blowing”.
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© Photograph: J Miles Cary/Reuters
© Photograph: J Miles Cary/Reuters
© Photograph: J Miles Cary/Reuters
‘The word ‘justified’ has haunted me since Monday,’’ the child’s maternal grandmother says
Since the Mississippi attorney general, Lynn Fitch, announced on Monday that the police shooting of Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old baby, “was justified”, footage of the shooting has been made public. It was first reported by Darkhorse Press, a Mississippi outlet.
On Thursday, attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner, who are representing the Wiley family, held a press conference at the Senatobia Church of Christ, in Senatobia, Mississippi. The press conference came shortly after members of the family were able to view footage of the shooting.
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© Photograph: Veronica Roberson/AP
© Photograph: Veronica Roberson/AP
© Photograph: Veronica Roberson/AP
Tech company previously complied with president’s demand to rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America
Donald Trump said Google rejected his request to rename the Atlantic Ocean after himself or America.
Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, the president said he had called Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, to ask whether the company could “handle” his proposal.
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© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images
© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images
© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images
The House on Thursday approved the tax reduction on heating fuel, part of a relief package to tackle the cost of living unveiled in late September.
The tax on heating fuel will be cut by 5.3 cents a litre.
In voting the bill through, MPs also amended it, so that the discounted tax now kicks in as of October 23 instead of November 1.
The reduced rate will apply until April 30, 2027.
The government estimates the fiscal hit from loss of tax revenue at around €5.2 million.
In remarks on the House floor, all MPs agreed with the measure, but some argued that it was a case of too little, too late.
Alma MP Odysseas Michaelides noted that, practically speaking, heating fuel would now cost €1,600 a tonne – instead of €1,650.
He also recalled that only in March this year, a tonne cost €950.
Michaelides said the government should have also requested from the European Commission a further tax rate reduction for motor fuel, as it had done for heating oil.
Direct Democracy MP Yiannis Laouris called the measure a “stopgap solution”.
He said it’s inconceivable that energy should be taxed; rather, it should be classed as an essential item.
The government, he added, is raking in extra revenue from VAT, due to higher prices, and then giving out small relief “as charity”.
Stylianos Constantinou, who took his own life at age 14, was a severely neglected boy who would never have turned out well, a witness in the ongoing trial told the court on Thursday.
Taking the stand was a special educator assigned to Stylianos during the 2012 to 2013 academic year, when the boy was in third grade.
The teenager committed suicide in 2019.
In the trial held at Nicosia district court, the witness said that though Stylianos at the time attended third grade, his learning skills were equivalent to the first grade.
“He could barely read, but was trying hard,” the educator said.
The hearing turned emotional when the witness, reading out a statement he had made to police in 2020, began sobbing.
“Based on his [the boy’s] overall state, it was a given that he would not turn out well, but I never thought he’d do what he did,” the witness said, referring to the suicide.
“Instead, I thought that one day he’d open the door and leave home.”
The witness described Stylianos as neglected, tired and isolated from his classmates.
Whenever the session with the educator came up, they would find Stylianos asleep at his desk.
“We’d try to wake him, he just wouldn’t wake up, and then he’d tell us he was tired as he was up until 11pm working at the farm.”
The boy would never do his homework, telling teachers he had no time because of his chores at the family farm.
Stylianos looked depressed and sullen, the witness said.
“He did not get to experience childhood.”
As to the boy’s poor physical state, the witness said Stylianos had dirty fingernails and hair, and used to smell badly.
“His skin was covered with dark spots, his hair was matted, his smell…you just couldn’t bear it.”
The boy would come to school with torn shoes and soiled clothes.
Regarding the family situation, the witness said Stylianos’ mother had told him of heated arguments with the father, who allegedly was a heavy drinker, had extramarital affairs and would not give money to the family.
The witness never met the father, who never got in touch with him to ask about the boy’s school performance.
On one occasion, following an argument in the family, Stylianos left the house and spent the entire night in a field. This happened in May 2013, the witness recalled.
On another occasion, the mother took the children and went to stay with her parents in Kokkinotrimithia for a number of days. Because she was unable to take Stylianos to school, located in Ayia Varvara, Stylianos would miss classes.
The court set the next hearing for Friday, when the witness will be cross-examined.
There are 11 defendants in total, facing charges ranging from physical/mental abuse to negligence.
Cyprus recycled just 27.8 per cent of its plastic packaging waste in 2024, placing it among the EU countries with the lowest recycling rates, according to Eurostat figures published on Thursday.
The island generated 23.31kg of plastic packaging waste per inhabitant, considerably below the EU average of 35.9kg.
Cyprus’ recycling rate was also well below the EU average of 42.4 per cent, with only France at 27.4 per cent, Finland at 26.9 per cent and Denmark at 22.5 per cent recording lower rates.
Across the EU, the plastic packaging recycling rate increased by 0.6 percentage points compared with 2023.
The highest recycling rates were recorded in Latvia at 71 per cent, followed by Belgium at 58 per cent, Poland at 56 per cent and the Czech Republic at 53.7 per cent.
Between 2014 and 2024, the amount of plastic packaging waste generated across the EU increased by 6.1kg per inhabitant, while the amount recycled also increased by 3.4kg per inhabitant.
Overall, approximately 81.5 million tonnes of packaging waste were generated in the EU in 2024, equivalent to 181kg per inhabitant, an increase of 19.6kg compared with 2014.
Paper and cardboard accounted for the largest share of packaging waste, at 40.8 per cent, followed by plastic at 19.6 per cent and glass at 18.1 per cent.
Wood and metal also accounted for significant shares of the total packaging waste generated across the bloc.
Patients’ groups issued a distress signal in parliament on Thursday over inadequate blood stocks to properly treat people with thalassaemia and other haemoglobin diseases.
MPs heard that the lack of blood has led to postponements of surgeries as well as under-transfusions for thalassaemia patients.
Disy’s Prodromos Alambritis called for specific measures to boost blood donations, describing it as a public healthcare priority.
He proposed increasing staffing at the national blood centre, organising targeted awareness campaigns, and giving incentives to army conscripts and civil servants to donate blood.
For example, civil servants donating blood could be given the day off.
The MP expressed concern that the finance ministry recently rejected a request by the blood centre to hire more staff.
Akel’s Constantinos Constantinou wondered how “serious shortages” in blood stocks can exist while Cyprus has a solid track record in blood donations.
Regarding the finance ministry denying the blood centre’s request, Constantinou asserted that health-related matters should not be treated as “accounting issues”.
He added: “Donating blood is an act of solidarity. It is the state’s responsibility to ensure sufficient amounts of blood.”
For her part, Alma MP Litsa Drousiotou spoke of blood banks in Famagusta, Larnaca and Paphos remaining closed due to lack of personnel.
Her party proposes the creation of mobile blood banks.
Miltos Miltiadous, head of the Federation of Patients’ Associations (Osak), said patients are issuing a “cry of anguish” over the lack of blood stocks.
According to data presented by the health ministry in June this year, Cyprus ranked first in the world in voluntary unpaid blood donation relative to population size.
California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii health officials ask CDC, ‘prioritizing emerging technologies’, to reconsider
California and Washington asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in May to validate a new way to test for measles – but after waiting two months, the CDC denied the request, citing “other competing priorities”, according to a letter from the West Coast Health Alliance to the CDC director, Erica Schwartz.
The letter, signed by health officials in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, asks Schwartz to reconsider and validate a rapid, high-volume measles test in preparation for major outbreaks. The alliance also asked the CDC to create protocols to test for other high-priority pathogens to prepare for future outbreaks.
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© Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images
No 10 says Russian president ‘has killed thousands of people, both innocent Ukrainians and his own people’
Downing Street has rejected the description of Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian” made by Donald Trump’s chief negotiator on the Ukraine war.
Steve Witkoff met the Russian president in St Petersburg on Wednesday as he sought to make a new push to end the invasion of Ukraine, with the US putting pressure on Kyiv to agree to a settlement.
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© Photograph: Kristina Solovyova/Reuters
© Photograph: Kristina Solovyova/Reuters
© Photograph: Kristina Solovyova/Reuters
A 44-year-old man has been arrested after being caught attempting to smuggle over 300 kilograms of meat across the Green Line, the Turkish Cypriot police have said.
In total, the man attempted to smuggle 305.4kg of boneless beef and 41kg of lamb tail fat across the Ayios Dhometios crossing point, all of which was seized as evidence.
The police’s investigation into the matter is ongoing.
In the trial of furloughed Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos, the woman accusing him of rape was on Thursday cross-examined by the defendant’s lawyers.
The complainant was being cross-examined for a second consecutive hearing by Phedonos’ attorneys – Christos Pourgourides and Nondas Korakidis.
Earlier, she had testified during two hearings. During her testimony, Phedonos was not in the courtroom, but in an adjacent room in the court complex.
According to media reports, the complainant’s cross-examination is expected to continue at the next hearing before Paphos criminal court – set for October 27.
The trial is taking place behind closed doors.
Phedonos faces five distinct charges: rape; indecent assault against a woman; indecent assault against a woman by another act (meaning non-physical); assault causing actual bodily harm; and administering a drug or substance to another person with the intent of rendering that person unable to resist.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Once all witnesses for the prosecution have taken the stand, the court will assess the testimony to decide whether a prima facie case has been established against the defendant.
If the court determines that a prima facie case has not been established, it may acquit the defendant at that stage.
If it decides otherwise, Phedonos will be asked to mount his defence – by summoning witnesses. The defendant himself is not legally obliged to take the stand.
Witnesses for the defence may be cross-examined by prosecutors.
Once the defence wraps up, the two sides will deliver their closing arguments.
The court will assess the entirety of the testimony and the evidence, and then deliver a guilty or not-guilty verdict, followed by sentencing in the event of a guilty verdict.
The Pentagon’s Active Denial System shoots energy beam that causes ‘sensation of intense heat on surface of skin’
Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defense, reportedly signed a memo last month permitting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to test a non-lethal “heat ray” for potential use at the US southern border.
The “heat ray”, known as the Active Denial System, is a military-grade weapon that shoots an energy beam causing “a sensation of intense heat on the surface of the skin”, according to a 2009 National Defense University case study on the weapon.
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© Photograph: Cpl. Andrew Huff/Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1
© Photograph: Cpl. Andrew Huff/Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1
© Photograph: Cpl. Andrew Huff/Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1
President Nikos Christodoulides has sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanding that the European Union resume discussions on its mutual defence clause, after the matter found itself at the centre of discussions when EU leaders met in Cyprus in April, but has since fallen off the agenda.
The sending of the letter was confirmed to the Cyprus Mail by presidential press office director Victor Papadopoulos, though he said he could offer no further details, while news website Politico quoted Christodoulides as having written that “I cannot overstate the importance of this provision for the EU and its member states”.
This, he wrote, rings true “especially in times of geopolitical uncertainty”.
“Given the gravity of the challenges we face, Cyprus would welcome the resumption of discussions at the relevant preparatory bodies. I would therefore appreciate an update on the proposals under consideration, as well as a timeline for next steps,” he wrote.
The leaders of the EU’s 27 member states had during a European Council summit in Nicosia in April resolved to demand the creation of a defence “playbook”, with Cypriot government sources at the time lamenting that “nothing has been done” in the decade since the first and only time that the bloc’s mutual defence clause was activated.
It was France which triggered Article 42.7 of the Treaty of the European Union, better known as the Lisbon Treaty, after Paris was hit by a series of terrorist attacks in November 2015.
Article 42.7 not attached to any formal operational plans
While the text of the treaty states that “if a member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other member states shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power”, it is not attached to any formal operational plans or international military structures.
Government sources lamented in April that “there is no clear picture of procedures, capabilities, or response times across member states”, and also decried what they described as a lack of clarity regarding the types of support which can be requested, what each member state may provide, and how quickly assistance can be delivered.
They also stressed that if a member state triggers Article 42.7, assistance must not be optional.
“It is a legal obligation, not a political choice,” they said, before adding that “member states cannot question the reasons” behind the triggering of the clause if it is triggered, provided that an armed attack has taken place.
However, in the six months since that summit, the matter of defence has slipped down the European agenda, with the most recent European Council summit, held in Brussels, being dedicated largely to the EU’s multiannual financial framework, its budget for the years between 2028 and 2034, while conversations on defence centred on Ukraine, which remains, for now, outside the bloc.
Focus inside EU has now shifted to multi-year budget
The focus on the budget has come with most leaders across Europe aiming to have the next multiannual financial framework devised and agreed upon by the member states by the end of this year.
Christodoulides had said on this matter last week that should an agreement not be reached by the end of this year, “I believe we would be sending a negative message, not only to European citizens, but to the world”.
Mutual defence was most recently discussed at the European Parliament last month, with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas decrying “Russia’s hybrid warfare in Europe” and calling for measures to be taken against it.
“Putin is a textbook bully. Moscow’s hybrid attacks are designed to intimidate us, paralyse our societies and make us hesitate to act. That is precisely what Putin wants. We should not let fear dictate our choices. We should match the level of these attacks with concrete action and a confident response. Europe’s security requires it and citizens expect it,” she said.
Cypriot MEPs called for stronger Article 42.7, looser relations with Turkey
In response, Cypriot MEP Costas Mavrides, of Diko, said that “hybrid attacks are also taking place for years by the neo-Ottoman Erdogan regime against member states in the eastern Mediterranean” in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He called for the EU’s mutual defence clause, Article 42.7 of the Treaty of the European Union, which is commonly known as the Lisbon Treaty, to be made “workable and operational”, before telling to Kallas that “your double standard policy is increasing part of the problem” regarding Turkey.
Fellow Cypriot MEP Geadis Geadi, of Elam, also called for the EU to “establish a clear roadmap for activating Article 42.7”, saying that this should “ensure that the mutual defence clause can be applied immediately and effectively”, and also criticised the EU for not treating Turkey and Russia in the same way.
“Mrs Kallas, be careful when you shake hands which are stained with the blood of hundreds and thousands of innocent people,” he said.
The social media personality denies allegations he gave a girl alcohol until she was drunk and sexually assaulted her
The “looksmaxxing” livestreamer Braden Peters, better known by his stage name Clavicular, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he raped a 17-year-old girl at his family’s Massachusetts home.
A social media personality known for promoting extreme devotion to male beauty, Peters, 20, is accused of giving the girl alcohol until she was drunk and then sexually assaulting her when she visited him in Chatham, on Cape Cod, in May 2025.
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© Photograph: Getty Images
© Photograph: Getty Images
© Photograph: Getty Images
Federal authorities allege state senator L Louise Lucas, a vocal Trump critic, led a ‘criminal marijuana enterprise’
Virginia state senator L Louise Lucas, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, was charged on Thursday in connection with what federal authorities alleged was a role leading a criminal enterprise that acquired and distributed large quantities of marijuana and laundered the proceeds.
An indictment unsealed on Thursday charged Lucas and six other defendants, including several of her relatives, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Lucas surrendered on Thursday, a justice department spokesperson said.
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© Photograph: Ryan M Kelly/AP
© Photograph: Ryan M Kelly/AP
© Photograph: Ryan M Kelly/AP
Exclusive: Michael Aboud, whose actions in what he believed to be a documentary are likely to come under considerable scrutiny, has expressed anger at the film-maker
• This article contains spoilers for Ali G: Who Iz I?
The chair of the El Paso County Republican Party has said he intends to sue Sacha Baron Cohen over footage of the local politician used in new satircal comedy Ali G: Who Iz I?
In the film, Michael Aboud is shown taking part in a training programme with another Cohen character, ex-Mossad terrorist expert Col Erran Morad, who instructs Aboud and fellow Maga sympathisers in self-defence techniques including the wearing, over clothes, of protective plastic buttocks. He also schools them in how to fire bullets from the middle of these buttocks by the repeated up and down manipulation of a rubber penis.
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© Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
© Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
© Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
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