Category: Americas

Donald Trump’s administration is using a large private donation and an executive order to make a big deal about efforts to keep members of the armed services paid during a federal government shutdown, which is now in its 25th day.
But experts agree that the White House and Pentagon’s efforts have likely crossed the bounds into illegality. The question is now: does that even matter anymore?
When Democrats and Republicans failed to meet an October 1 deadline to fund the government for the current fiscal year, Congress kicked off a countdown clock. More than a million Americans, employed by the federal government in some manner, were due to miss a paycheck when the clock struck zero.
It did so on October 15, resulting in those hundreds of thousands of workers going unpaid. The same day, Trump signed an executive order restarting that clock for service members, directing the Pentagon to make sure the military continued to receive pay.
“Funds used for military pay and allowances during the ..

Residents in Jamaica prepared for Hurricane Melissa as it strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday (26 October).

Bijou Phillips, the ex-wife of actor Danny Masterson, wants to change her daughter's last name in the wake of Masterson's rape conviction two years ago.
Phillips, 45, filed a request in a California court on October 24 to change the name of her 11-year-old daughter from Fianna Francis Masterson to Fianna Francis Phillips, according to PEOPLE.
A judge is currently reviewing the request, according to TMZ, which broke the story.
On Friday, a judge also changed both Phillips and Masterson's legal statuses to “single.”
Masterson, 49, was convicted of raping two women in September 2023. He is currently being held at North Kern State Prison in Delano, California.
Bijou Phillips, left, with her ex-husband Danny Masterson, right. Phillips filed for divorce after Masterson was convicted on two rape charges and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.Phillips filed for divorce from Masterson, whom she'd been married to for approximately 12 years, two weeks after he was se..

A man fleeing immigration agents in Virginia was killed when he ran onto a busy highway and was struck by a car, according to officials.
Police named Jose Castro-Rivera, 24, of Honduras, as the deceased individual.
Agents were conducting a vehicle stop as part of a “targeted, intelligence-based immigration enforcement operation” when the man “resisted heavily and fled the scene onto a busy highway,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Castro-Rivera was then hit by a pickup truck on Interstate 254 at the Military Highway Interchange in Norfolk, according to Virginia State Police, who were not involved in the chase but are investigating the death.
ICE officers attempted to give the 24-year-old CPR at the scene, though he succumbed to his injuries, DHS said.
open image in galleryAt least two immigrants have been hit by cars and died while fleeing federal immigration agents this year“The officer then informed the three detained aliens that their friend had deceased,” accordin..

The latest picture of Donald Trump for the front cover of Time Magazine appears to reference a famous portrait of a convicted Nazi war criminal, according to a new report.
The image, released ahead of the print issue’s publication next week, shows the president with hands clasped leaning over the Resolute Desk, and he is framed between two flags behind him. “TRUMP’S WORLD,” the caption reads.
Social media users were quick to point out that the image and its composition is reminiscent of a famous 1963 portrait of German Industrialist Alfried Krupp, which was taken by Arnold Newman for Newsweek.
During World War II, Krupp ran a major arms manufacturer for the Nazis and was later convicted as a war criminal for his company's use of Jews, prisoners of war and others as slave labor. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but served only three and was later pardoned.
In the psychologically charged image, which Newman, who was Jewish, initially refused to take, Krupp is also seen leanin..

A devastating explosion at an explosives plant in Tennessee, which claimed 16 lives and was felt over 20 miles away, originated in an area where workers were mixing explosive materials in kettles, triggering other nearby explosives, authorities revealed on Friday.
The blast, which occurred on October 10 at the Accurate Energetic Systems factory in Bucksnort, an unincorporated community approximately 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Nashville, completely destroyed the facility.
Officials confirmed that the remains of two victims have yet to be identified.
While the on-site investigation has concluded, determining the precise cause of the catastrophe could still take several months, according to Brice McCracken, the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the National Center for Explosives Training and Research.
In addition to locating victims' remains, the on-site work involved removing and disposing of explosives that didn't..

CloseTrump shows off gold ballroom he claims has been 'wanted for 150 years'President Donald Trump revealed the “friends” who convinced him to walk back on plans to send federal troops to San Francisco.
“I got a great call from some incredible people, some friends of mine, some very successful people, ”Trump said at a roundtable Thursday.
The president spoke of “Marc” and “Jensen”, appearing to reference Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The president had earlier posted on social media that he was preparing to “surge” troops to the California city Saturday but changed his mind after friends “in the area” asked him to hold off because Mayor Daniel Lurie was “making substantial progress.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened to sue the Trump administration if he sent the National Guard to the state, while former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that if federal law enforcement violates California law, local police could arrest them.
Before Trum..

As the fragile ceasefire in Gaza continues to hold, Palestinians have been returning to what is left of their lives after two years of relentless bombardment.
But thousands of those who survived Israel’s assault on the enclave face the challenge of life-altering injuries they suffered during the conflict.
There are more than 6,000 prosthetics currently needed in Gaza, many of which are for children, according to the World Health Organisation.
And there are precious few people on the ground who have the expertise to help them.
open image in galleryFive-year-old amputee Sila Abu Aklan uses a walker to move around at her grandmother's house in Gaza CityHeba, from NGO Humanity & Inclusion, is one of just eight prosthetic technicians left in Gaza. She examines people’s amputations, measures their stumps and makes moulds for both leg and arm prostheses.
“We see people living with amputations whose stories of loss are heartbreaking and unimaginable,” the mother-of-two said. “Many of t..

CloseRussia conducts nuclear triad drills involving ground, naval, air forcesDonald Trump has unleashed harsh new sanctions on two of Russia’s largest oil companies, the first such sanctions in his second term as US president.
The Treasury Department said on Wednesday it was sanctioning Rosneft and Lukoil in response to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “refusal to end this senseless war”.
In a statement, the department lashed out at Moscow’s “lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.
It said the sanctions would “increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector and degrade the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy”.
The decision came after Trump had cancelled a planned meeting with Putin, telling reporters on Wednesday that it “just didn’t feel right to me”.
“Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” he said.
Earlier in the da..

As the government shutdown enters its 22nd day, some Republicans in both chambers are floating an idea few in their party had ever even entertained: getting rid of the legislative filibuster to bring an end to the morass.
In recent years, Democrats have floated changing the filibuster. Former senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema blocked attempts to create a carveout to codify a new version of the Voting Rights Act. They hoped to do so again with abortion rights as the Supreme Court planned to overturn Roe v Wade in the Dobbs v Jackson decision, only to fail.
But now, some hard-right Republicans are floating the idea.
“My thought is, is that I'm not willing to see children in my state go hungry, which is literally happening now, over some Senate procedure,” Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told The Independent.
Hawley came to the Senate in Donald Trump’s first presidency, after then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell torpedoed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.
open image in g..