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  • France to close up to 500 schools on Monday over student protests

    France to close up to 500 schools on Monday over student protests

    Days of escalating violent clashes between law enforcement and student demonstrators have left France’s education system in turmoil, with officials announcing Sunday that up to 500 secondary schools across the country will operate at partial or full capacity closures on Monday.

    France’s Education Ministry spokesperson Édouard Geffray confirmed that security requirements have not been met to hold normal classes at between 400 and 500 high schools, leading to widespread full or partial suspension of instruction. Since the student movement launched last week, 24 educational facilities have been subjected to arson attacks or extensive looting, Geffray added.

    What began as a localized protest in Paris over failing education standards has rapidly spread across the nation in seven days, drawing thousands of participating students to major urban centers including Montpellier, Nantes and Marseille. The core grievances of the demonstrators center on longstanding systemic issues: chronic teacher shortages, overcrowded learning spaces, and chronically under-maintained, dilapidated school infrastructure.

    By Friday, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin reported that 735 of France’s 3,700 total secondary schools had already experienced disruption of some form from the unrest. While Geffray warned that the scope of school closures on Monday could match the disruption seen on Friday, he outlined plans for a gradual, partial resumption of normal academic operations once security is restored.

    In a sharp rebuke of extremist elements involved in the unrest, Geffray claimed that far-left activist groups had infiltrated the original student-led movement, hijacking the peaceful protest agenda to carry out systematic violent action. “This clearly creates major risks for both our education staff and enrolled students,” he stated, adding that 78 education workers have sustained injuries in the clashes — a scale of violence against school personnel that he described as unprecedented in modern French history.

    Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed that law enforcement carried out 1,747 arrests across the country during unrest on Friday alone. According to reporting from Agence France-Presse, protest organizers have rejected the government’s initial responses and called for additional mass demonstrations to proceed on Tuesday, accusing national leaders of failing to put forward any concrete policy solutions to address the students’ core demands.

    Over the weekend, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that his administration was rolling out new policy measures to tackle the challenges voiced by students and education staff. The government’s proposal includes commitments to protect the continuity of instruction, upgrade deteriorating school facilities, reorganize daily school schedules to reduce overcrowding, and increase transparency around France’s controversial university admissions platform.

    Lecornu also added that the government is accelerating legislative review of its pending “vandal-pays” bill, which would require anyone convicted of damaging school property during the protests to cover the full cost of repairs and reconstruction.

  • Girl, 12, fatally shot in US during ‘dispute over parking space’

    Girl, 12, fatally shot in US during ‘dispute over parking space’

    A senseless act of gun violence has left a 12-year-old girl dead and three other people injured in Baltimore, Maryland, after a parking-related argument between two men erupted into gunfire near a youth football game this past weekend. According to local law enforcement officials, the shooting unfolded just after 6 p.m. EDT Saturday at a city park, where children had gathered to play American football. Law enforcement officials confirmed the young girl was an entirely innocent bystander, who was simply at the park to watch the game when she was caught in the crossfire.

    Two men, who police have identified as the primary aggressors, got into a verbal dispute over a parking space that quickly escalated to lethal violence, with both men opening fire on one another. When first responders arrived at the scene, they found the 12-year-old with a critical gunshot wound, alongside a woman who had also been hit by gunfire. Two men connected to the altercation later checked into local hospitals to receive treatment for their own shooting-related injuries.

    Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters during a Sunday press conference that the 12-year-old victim, whose identity has not yet been released to the public, was never an intended target of the shooting. She was pronounced dead shortly after being transported to a nearby hospital. The three other injured people are all reported to be in stable condition with non-life-threatening wounds, Worley added.

    In harsh remarks condemning the attack, Worley called the two shooters “cowards” for opening fire in a crowded public park full of children. “Two grown men got into an argument, and now a 12-year-old is gone,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said during the same press briefing. “We never should have to say something like that. What happened out here today is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in my life.”

    Investigations into the shooting are still ongoing, with law enforcement currently searching for at least two suspects connected to the attack. It remains unclear how many rounds were fired during the altercation, and authorities have issued a public call for any witnesses who have information about the incident to come forward to assist with the investigation. The killing is the latest high-profile incident of gun violence ripping through American communities, where accidental bystander deaths involving interpersonal disputes have become increasingly common in public spaces.

  • ‘The Israeli occupation does not distinguish’: Gaza family mourns Christian mother and daughter

    ‘The Israeli occupation does not distinguish’: Gaza family mourns Christian mother and daughter

    It was just after 5 a.m. on Saturday when 14-year-old Fuad opened his eyes at his father’s home, his mind already set on the routine of a school day. But the routine Fuad expected would never come—instead, he learned that the two women who raised him were already gone, killed in an Israeli airstrike that reduced their western Gaza City apartment to rubble overnight.

    Mary Abu Dawud, 40-something, and her mother Maysaa, 72, were two of the five Palestinian civilians killed when three missiles slammed into the al-Asala residential building shortly after 1:30 a.m. that same day, Palestinian authorities and local church leaders confirmed. Recounting the destruction described to him by first responders, Fuad shared the harrowing details of the blast that took his family: “My mother was thrown violently against the wall by the force of the explosion, and my grandmother was swallowed by flames when the missile hit our home.” His voice breaking, the teen added, “Today I lost the most precious people in my life. There are no words that can ever describe what I feel right now.”

    Fuad had been living with his father following his parents’ divorce. When he woke that morning, his father was already waiting by his bedside, struggling to deliver the devastating news. The pair rushed straight to the hospital, but by the time they arrived, there was nothing to do but mourn. “When we got there, he told me they had been killed and that I needed to pray for them,” Fuad recalled. “We went to see their bodies, but they were already wrapped in burial shrouds.”

    After the identification process, the remains of Mary and Maysaa were transported to St Porphyrius Church in central Gaza City, where relatives, local Christian community leaders, and Muslim neighbors gathered to hold funeral prayers. Photographs from the service show rows of mourners standing somberly around the covered bodies of the two women, heads bowed in grief. According to church records, the pair had spent much of the ongoing war taking shelter at the Holy Family Catholic Church before recently moving into the al-Asala apartment for what they thought would be greater safety.

    Other survivors of the airstrike shared chilling accounts of the sudden chaos that unfolded as they slept. Emad Kullab, a 30-year-old resident who was on the building’s fourth floor with his family when the missiles hit, described the moment the attack began as “the whole world turning upside down around me.” “It was pure horror,” Kullab said. “Dust and flying rubble blinded all of us. I ran downstairs as soon as I heard people screaming for help, and what I saw will never leave me: neighbors torn apart by the blast, women and children bleeding, fires spreading across every floor.”

    Kullab confirmed that Mary and Maysaa died instantly in the strike. He remembered Mary as a caring local doctor and Maysaa as a warm, kind neighbor who was friendly to everyone in the building, regardless of faith. “This was a residential building full of completely innocent people,” he said. “It was one of the calmest, most peaceful buildings in all of Gaza, but the Israeli occupation is determined to destroy everything here, no matter what.”

    Yasser Abu Juba, a 19-year-old who lives in a nearby building and was one of the first first responders to reach the al-Asala site, helped pull survivors from the rubble and worked to extinguish spreading fires. He shared unflinching details of the carnage he witnessed that morning: “The building doorman was decapitated by a piece of missile shrapnel. His phone was still open, right where he dropped it—he had been playing PUBG when the blast hit.” Abu Juba added, “One of our Christian neighbors was also decapitated, another woman’s body was so badly disfigured it was almost unrecognizable. An elderly woman in the building next door was also killed, her body shattered. Dozens more were hurt. I will never be able to forget the things I saw with my own eyes that day.”

    Gaza’s Christian community is one of the smallest in the region, numbering fewer than 1,000 people, most of whom identify as Orthodox Christians. This airstrike marks the latest in a years-long string of attacks on Palestinian Christian communities and their places of worship during the ongoing conflict. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem released a statement following the latest deaths, expressing “deep sorrow and unshakable grief” over the killing of the two women and extending condolences to their surviving family and the entire Gaza Christian community.

    George Anton, the Latin Patriarchate’s director of operations in Gaza, explained that the deaths have left a lasting wound across the Strip’s tight-knit Christian community: “This killing has left deep sorrow among all Christian families in the Gaza Strip.” At the funeral, held October 3 at St Porphyrius in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood, Muslim neighbors and friends joined the Christian community to mourn Mary and Maysaa, a demonstration of shared grief across Gaza’s faith communities.

    Previous attacks have already left dozens of Christian Palestinians dead: In October 2023, an airstrike on the St Porphyrius Church compound killed at least 18 people who had taken shelter there. Two months later, in December 2023, the Patriarchate confirmed a mother and daughter were killed inside the Holy Family parish compound. Most recently, in July 2025, an Israeli strike on the Holy Family Catholic Church compound left three people dead and multiple others injured, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli.

    For Fuad, the grief is a deeply personal, unending pain. When he returned to the wreckage of his mother’s apartment after the funeral, one small, mundane object stuck with him: her favorite ceramic mug, left half-buried in the rubble. “I came back to see the house where they lived, and I saw the mug my mother loved so much,” he said. The teen ended with a blunt, devastating observation that reflects the shared fear of all Gazans, regardless of their faith: “The Israeli occupation does not distinguish between Christians and Muslims. We are all at risk of being killed here in Gaza. I don’t even know if I will still be alive after this interview ends.”

  • Green Party recognises Zionism as a form of racism and backs single Palestinian state

    Green Party recognises Zionism as a form of racism and backs single Palestinian state

    In a groundbreaking and divisive decision that has sent ripples through British political discourse, the Green Party of England and Wales has become the first major UK political party to formally approve a motion classifying Zionism as a form of racism, while also abandoning longstanding support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in favor of a single democratic Palestinian state guaranteeing equal rights for all ethnic and religious groups.

    The vote, held Sunday during the party’s annual conference in Brighton, saw 1,022 party members back the controversial motion, with 813 members voting to reject it, according to information obtained by Middle East Eye. The outcome has exposed deep internal rifts within the party, with top figures splitting sharply over the historic declaration.

    Co-Deputy Leader Mothin Ali, who has repeatedly voiced public support for the motion, framed Zionism as an ethno-nationalist ideology that has led to ethnic cleansing and is rooted in the belief of inherent superiority of one group over another. A self-identified committed anti-racist who entered politics through anti-racism and anti-war organizing, Ali argued that the core tenets of the motion align with fundamental anti-discrimination principles. “The belief that one group of people is superior to another, I just can’t accept that,” he told Middle East Eye in a post-vote interview.

    In contrast, sitting Green MPs Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay have publicly criticized the motion, joining party leader Zack Polanski — who is Jewish — in calling for targeted safeguards to protect Jewish members from internal disciplinary action over their ties to Zionist-affiliated community organizations. Before the vote, Polanski insisted the motion needed explicit amendments to confirm that members who oppose Israeli occupation, apartheid and military action in Gaza but maintain affiliation with Zionist-identified institutions would not face unequal treatment within the party.

    Members ultimately rejected a proposed amendment that would have barred the party from using the motion to pressure, discipline or sanction members based on their affiliation with Jewish community institutions that identify as Zionist, or for holding pro-two-state or pro-binational state views that would not result in discipline if expressed by non-Jewish members. However, delegates did approve a separate amendment affirming Palestinians’ “inalienable right to self-determination”, according to party insiders.

    Ali noted he did not oppose the rejected safeguard amendment, adding that he supports extra reassurance for any Jewish members who feel uncertain about the motion’s implications. “If Jewish members feel like they need an additional level of reassurance, then I think they’re right to ask for that,” he said. “All members should feel safe in this party. Not that the motion should make them feel unsafe, but if they want an additional level of reassurance, I welcome that.”

    In the lead-up to the conference, widespread speculation emerged that Jewish members affiliated with Zionist-identified synagogues could face internal party disciplinary action following the vote. But Lubna Speitan, a British Palestinian and the lead author of the motion, pushed back against those claims, clarifying that the declaration is an external policy motion that does not alter the party’s internal disciplinary processes. Speitan also emphasized that the motion explicitly clarifies “not all Jews are Zionist and not all Zionists are Jewish”, dispelling claims that the declaration targets Jewish people as a group.

    The motion earned public backing from prominent Holocaust survivor and activist Stephen Kapos, who stated that “Zionism both as an ideology and practice is harmful and has no legitimacy and must be rejected.” The Jewish Greens, the party’s official Jewish member group, opted not to take a formal organizational position on the motion, acknowledging that its own membership is deeply divided on the issue.

    Ali argued that the motion will reshape long-stagnant national conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the UK, pointing to the party’s earlier lead among major UK parties in formally recognizing allegations of genocide in Gaza in 2024. “So we’ve always led on this subject, we’ve led on the subject of human rights, regardless of where it is. We’re bringing other political parties with us. We’re encouraging the debate to happen in society,” he said.

  • Indian police accused of sexually harassing journalists at protest

    Indian police accused of sexually harassing journalists at protest

    A growing political firestorm has erupted in India over a sweeping national voter roll revision, with escalating tensions spilling into the streets of New Delhi and Mumbai, and new explosive allegations of sexual harassment against Delhi police by three female journalists covering the protests. The accusations emerged Saturday, shortly after police detained dozens of young demonstrators who are demanding the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the contentious electoral roll update, officially named the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

    In response to the formal complaints, Delhi Police said in a social media post that the allegations had been passed to its crime branch for what it promises will be a “fair and impartial” investigation. By Sunday, thousands of protesters regrouped in Delhi’s central protest hub Jantar Mantar and Mumbai for the third consecutive day of demonstrations, amplifying their calls for Kumar to step down. Viral videos circulating on social media platforms show uniformed officers physically dragging demonstrators away from the Jantar Mantar site, with multiple accounts of excessive use of force. The three female journalists’ claims center on reports of inappropriate touching by on-duty officers during the clearance operations.

    One student activist from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aahna Singh, told Reuters that officers dragged her across the ground by her hair, condemning the response as open police brutality against peaceful protesters. “Police dragged me by my hair,” Singh told reporters on site. “This is nothing but brutality against people who are simply asking for free and fair elections.”

    Opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi waded into the controversy Friday, saying that women across the country now have legitimate reason to fear for their safety at the hands of law enforcement, and that the Union Home Ministry, which oversees Delhi Police, must be held accountable for the alleged abuse. The Press Club of India issued a strongly worded statement condemning the treatment of journalists, saying it was “shocked and dismayed” by the reported behavior. “Behaviour of this kind cannot be normalised in a democracy,” the statement read. “Journalists must be allowed to work freely, without fear, and document those who gather to raise various issues.” The organization called for immediate disciplinary action against any officers found responsible.

    At the core of the protests is the voter roll revision itself, which has already removed 130 million names from India’s national electoral rolls. The Election Commission has defended the exercise, arguing that it is a long-overdue cleanup effort designed to eliminate duplicate registrations, ineligible entries, and names of voters who have died, relocated internationally, or moved to new jurisdictions. The body notes the last full national revision was conducted nearly 25 years ago, making an update necessary to ensure electoral integrity.

    Critics, however, allege the revision is a deliberate partisan manipulation designed to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in upcoming elections. Both the BJP and the Election Commission have forcefully rejected all claims of partisan bias. The controversy deepened last month after Indian Express published a report revealing that Kumar’s two fellow senior election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had formally registered objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions they claimed were issued without their knowledge or input—most related to the SIR roll revision.

    The Election Commission has pushed back on claims of internal dysfunction, stating in an official release that “differing views” are a normal part of its internal decision-making process and that all final decisions have been reached unanimously. Even so, the revelation of internal rifts triggered widespread public outrage and gave new momentum to opposition demands for Kumar’s resignation.

    The current wave of protests has drawn support from a diverse range of groups, most notably the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), an influential pressure group that began as a satirical online movement and has grown into a major force for grassroots mobilization in Indian politics. The CJP notched its first major national victory in July, when it forced then-Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign following weeks of sustained protests demanding broader education sector reforms. It was the CJP that called for the latest round of demonstrations in the wake of the Indian Express report on internal Election Commission divisions, galvanizing thousands of young people to join the street actions across India’s largest cities.

  • Saudi Arabia shelves $2.5bn Neom stadium planned for 2034 World Cup, report says

    Saudi Arabia shelves $2.5bn Neom stadium planned for 2034 World Cup, report says

    Saudi Arabia has quietly halted progress on a $2.5 billion cutting-edge stadium planned for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, multiple industry and news sources confirm, with delays to the kingdom’s signature Neom mega-development raising new questions about the future of its most ambitious infrastructure initiatives. According to MEED Projects, a leading construction sector intelligence platform, the high-profile stadium project has been formally categorized as “on hold” indefinitely, matching an earlier Reuters report on the suspension. What makes the planned venue unique is its design: it was slated to become one of the most futuristic sports facilities in the world, built 350 meters above ground inside The Line, the 160-kilometer linear car-free city that forms the core of Neom, and would have held 46,000 spectators for World Cup matches. When Saudi Arabia unveiled its official 2034 World Cup bid proposal in 2024, the Neom stadium was featured as one of 15 proposed match venues spread across five host cities, and FIFA officially selected Saudi Arabia as the 2034 tournament host in December 2024. This edition of the World Cup will make history as the first tournament with an expanded 48-team field held entirely within a single country. The suspension of the stadium project casts renewed uncertainty over The Line, the flagship development that sits at the center of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, a sweeping plan to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy and reshape the kingdom’s global image through a series of futuristic, large-scale infrastructure projects. Questions about The Line’s timeline are not new: in April, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) — the Saudi sovereign wealth fund that owns Neom — publicly noted that The Line is no longer a top priority and will not receive accelerated development before 2030, though he declined to confirm any outright project cancellations. In response to reports of the stadium suspension, Saudi Arabia’s World Cup 2034 Hosting Higher Authority stated that “substantial delivery” of tournament construction is already underway, and shared visual updates on other ongoing stadium projects to back this claim. The Neom stadium hold is not an isolated shift: it comes just months after construction was suspended on The Mukaab, a massive cube-shaped skyscraper planned as the centerpiece of Riyadh’s New Murabba downtown development project. Industry observers say PIF, the kingdom’s main investment vehicle for large-scale projects, has been gradually reorienting its strategy away from these high-cost giga-projects toward investments that can generate faster financial returns. This strategic shift comes as Saudi Arabia faces growing economic and security pressures on multiple fronts. The kingdom’s critical energy exports have faced disruptions tied to escalating regional tensions stemming from the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, and Yemeni Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks on Saudi infrastructure in recent months. Just this past Saturday, the group claimed responsibility for an attack near an Aramco facility in the Saudi capital Riyadh, with local witnesses reporting visible smoke and fire at the site, though Saudi government officials and Aramco have not yet issued an official confirmation of the incident. Economically, the kingdom is already facing headwinds: following a prolonged downturn in oil sector activity, Saudi Arabia’s finance ministry projects a national budget deficit for 2025, and forecasts a 3.6 percent contraction in real gross domestic product. For Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup has long been framed as a core pillar of his strategy to grow Saudi Arabia’s global influence and diversify its economy away from fossil fuels, and FIFA has publicly praised the kingdom’s bid proposal as “absolutely incredible.” It remains unclear whether the suspended Neom stadium will be relocated to another site within Saudi Arabia’s 2034 venue network, or if a replacement venue will be named ahead of the tournament.

  • Christa Pike’s prognosis still unclear after failed execution, lawyer says

    Christa Pike’s prognosis still unclear after failed execution, lawyer says

    Almost three decades after one of Tennessee’s most high-profile 1990s murder cases sent 19-year-old Christa Pike to death row, a botched execution attempt has thrown the state’s capital punishment system into chaos, leaving the convicted killer fighting for her life and reigniting fierce debate over the ethics of lethal injection protocols.

    Pike, now 50, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal 1995 torture and killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow University of Tennessee student. The attack, carried out alongside Pike’s then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, sparked intense national media attention that secured Pike’s place as one of the few women on U.S. death row.

    Three decades after her conviction, state officials attempted to execute Pike by lethal injection on Wednesday this week. The attempt failed, and Pike was transferred to a Nashville hospital for emergency care. On Sunday, her lead defense attorney Stephen Ferrell confirmed to CNN that Pike remains in critical condition, with an uncertain long-term prognosis.

    According to Ferrell, medical teams are still working to clear two full doses of pentobarbital, the lethal injection drug, from her system. As of Sunday, she remains on a ventilator and has not regained consciousness at any point since the botched procedure. Ferrell, who has not been permitted to visit Pike in the hospital, said he has only received updates through her medical power of attorney, leaving key details about her condition still unknown.

    “She’s still in the hospital, on a ventilator, critically ill, we really don’t know the prognosis yet, and may not know for several days,” Ferrell said. “If she recovers — she may not fully recover — and there may be issues about her competence. I mean, we just don’t know any of this. We have had no discussions about this. The Tennessee attorney general’s office so far has not given us any indications of what their intentions will be.”

    Long before the execution attempt, Pike’s legal team warned state officials that her pre-existing medical conditions, including thrombocytosis (a blood clotting disorder) and small veins, put her at high risk of extreme suffering and a botched procedure. Those warnings went unheeded, and the execution moved forward despite last-minute legal challenges.

    In the wake of the failed attempt, top Tennessee officials have already stepped down or instituted sweeping changes to the state’s death penalty system. On Saturday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a full suspension of all executions for the remainder of 2026. Hours before that announcement, the head of the state’s prison system announced he would resign from his post. State correctional authorities have so far declined to explain what went wrong during the execution attempt, and have not said whether they will attempt to execute Pike if she recovers.

    Ferrell has called on state leaders to intervene permanently, urging the governor to commute Pike’s death sentence to life in prison at a minimum. He noted that Pike has already served more than 30 years on death row, most of that time in solitary confinement, and endured what he described as unthinkable suffering during the botched procedure.

    “She has endured a torturous attempt at executing her,” Ferrell said. “We don’t know right now — and we may never know — what sort of torture she endured during [her failed execution].”

    For the family of victim Colleen Slemmer, the botched execution has brought renewed pain. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, traveled to Nashville from out of state to witness the execution, only to leave when the attempt failed. In an interview with local outlet WJXX, Martinez said she broke down in tears after learning the procedure was unsuccessful, and argued that the state owed her an apology for the failed outcome.

    The Tennessee Department of Correction has stood by its lethal injection protocol, saying in a statement that its existing guidelines do not allow for additional medical procedures beyond those already carried out during the attempt.

  • Two people killed as floods hit Spain’s Catalonia region

    Two people killed as floods hit Spain’s Catalonia region

    Deadly flash flooding has swept across northeastern Spain’s Catalonia region, leaving at least two people dead and triggering a massive emergency response as authorities warn of ongoing risks to local communities.

    In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed reporters, confirming that the crisis remains in a critical phase. “The situation in Catalonia is still very complicated,” Sánchez stated, noting that ongoing rainfall and saturated river basins are preventing first responders from fully containing the hazard. Local emergency management agencies have deployed hundreds of firefighters, police officers, and civil defense personnel to carry out water rescues, evacuate at-risk neighborhoods, and clear roads blocked by mud and debris.

    The extreme weather event, driven by an unusually slow-moving storm system that dumped more than 200 millimeters of rain over a 24-hour period in parts of the region, has caused widespread infrastructure damage. Dozens of rural and suburban towns have lost access to clean drinking water, and key transport links including regional rail lines and major highways have been closed indefinitely. The Catalan regional government has declared a 15-day state of emergency for the worst-hit areas, unlocking immediate emergency funding for relief efforts and long-term recovery.

    Authorities have urged residents in low-lying and flood-prone zones to follow evacuation orders strictly, warning that residual flood risk remains high even as rainfall begins to taper off. Spanish officials have also begun preliminary assessments of the total economic damage, with early estimates suggesting losses could run into hundreds of millions of euros for agricultural operations, small businesses, and public infrastructure. As of the latest update, search operations are still ongoing to confirm no additional people are unaccounted for in the most severely affected areas.

  • US Marine arrested over murder of woman in Okinawa, Japan

    US Marine arrested over murder of woman in Okinawa, Japan

    A deadly alleged criminal incident involving an American service member has roiled U.S.-Japan relations and reignited long-simmering tensions over American military basing in Okinawa, after local Japanese authorities took a 20-year-old U.S. Marine into custody on suspicion of murder following the discovery of a local woman’s body in a Naha City hotel.

    The suspect, Devin Jacob Ballard, is assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, one of the largest American military installations on the Japanese southern prefecture. The victim has been identified by Japan’s national public broadcaster NHK as 39-year-old Anna Yagi, a local resident of Okinawa. Her body was found early Saturday morning in a hotel in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, according to Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.

    Top Japanese leaders have issued sharp condemnation of the alleged crime, framing it as an unacceptable violation of local safety that deepens longstanding public anxiety over the presence of American troops. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi labeled the incident a “brutal and heinous” robbery-murder, confirming that she has formally called on the United States to implement far stricter discipline for all military personnel stationed across Japanese territory. Koizumi echoed that outrage in a social media statement, saying, “Such an incident is utterly inexcusable and fills me with strong indignation. Incidents and accidents involving U.S. military personnel cause significant anxiety to the local community and must never occur.”

    Okinawa’s regional leadership went further, arguing that the alleged killing proves that repeated U.S. promises to improve personnel conduct have failed. Okinawa Governor Genta Koja noted that his prefecture has repeatedly demanded action from Washington to prevent similar incidents, saying the killing demonstrates a fundamental lack of discipline among American forces. “The fact that this kind of event has happened again leaves us no choice but to conclude that the U.S. military’s efforts in maintaining discipline, educating personnel, and other such measures are completely ineffective,” Koja said.

    In response to the incident, U.S. officials have pledged full cooperation with Japanese investigative authorities. The U.S. Marine Corps released a statement on social media confirming it is working alongside Japanese law enforcement following the allegations of serious criminal conduct by one of its service members, and extended official condolences to Yagi’s family. The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo also confirmed it is coordinating fully with the Japanese government and local police. On Sunday, Japan’s foreign ministry formally summoned U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass for talks about the incident, a step that underscores the diplomatic friction the killing has generated.

    Okinawa has hosted a heavy American military presence for decades, with tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed across multiple bases in the prefecture. While the basing agreement is a core pillar of the U.S.-Japan security alliance, it has long been a source of discontent among local Okinawans, who have repeatedly protested crimes, environmental damage, and public nuisance linked to American military personnel.

  • Watch: What we know about Russian strikes on Kyiv bridges

    Watch: What we know about Russian strikes on Kyiv bridges

    A fresh wave of Russian attacks has once again struck a critical infrastructure link in the Ukrainian capital, marking the second straight day that strikes have targeted Kyiv’s Northern Bridge. Dan Johnson, the BBC’s senior Ukraine correspondent, is currently positioned in the immediate vicinity of the damaged crossing, providing on-the-ground reporting of the aftermath of the latest attack.

    The repeated targeting of the river crossing underscores the ongoing pressure Russian military operations are placing on key transportation networks in and around Kyiv, as the conflict in Ukraine enters another phase of intensified strikes on urban infrastructure. Local authorities have not yet released full details on casualties or the extent of structural damage to the bridge, which serves as a vital connection for residents and supply movements in the northern part of the capital region.

    Johnson’s presence near the site comes as international media continues to document the impact of daily strikes on Ukrainian cities, bringing first-hand perspective on how the attacks are disrupting civilian life and transport links across Kyiv.