Less than two weeks away from her long-awaited wedding, 23-year-old Palestinian resident Mayar Amrish sat in her family’s sunlit spacious courtyard in Farsh al-Hawa, a neighborhood in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, mapping out final details for her upcoming nuptials and the new chapter of her life ahead. Within mere hours, that quiet moment of domestic joy would be shattered, as their entire three-story family home was reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble by Israeli military bulldozers. The Amrish family was among the very first targets of a sweeping, city-wide Israeli military campaign codenamed “Roar of Judah”, launched in the immediate aftermath of a Friday shooting incident where two Palestinian attackers killed two Israeli soldiers. Widely condemned by human rights observers as a form of collective punishment against the broader Palestinian civilian population, the operation imposed a full, crippling lockdown on Hebron, paired with widespread home raids, mass arbitrary arrests, structural demolitions, and the forced displacement of thousands of local residents. The Amrish family’s only “offense” that marked them for destruction was their home’s proximity to the site of the earlier shooting. When Israeli local media first reported on Friday that the military planned to demolish residences near the attack location, a gut instinct of dread spurred Amrish to rush to pack clothing and critical legal documents. “Something inside me told me they were coming to tear it down,” she shared in an interview with Middle East Eye. “Sure enough, we had barely stuffed a few changes of clothes into bags when soldiers surrounded the house and screamed orders for us to leave immediately.” Just days prior, the family had finally breathed a collective sigh of relief: an Israeli court had formally suspended a long-pending demolition order against their 600-square-meter property, which had faced demolition threats for years due to its location in Area C of the occupied West Bank, a zone under full Israeli administrative and security control. Since completing construction of the home in 2021, the Amrish household had spent roughly 30,000 shekels ($9,600) in addition to tens of thousands more in legal fees and municipal fines fighting to save the home, which represented the fruit of 25 years of their father’s hard work saving while living abroad in Saudi Arabia, with total construction costs hitting nearly 2 million shekels ($645,000). Their reprieve was devastatingly short-lived. Israeli bulldozers moved in before the family could retrieve any of their furniture or personal belongings, razing the entire structure to the ground. Both of Amrish’s parents lost consciousness on the scene as they watched decades of accumulated labor and life savings turn to dust. The seven-member family has since been forced to take shelter with Amrish’s uncle, scrambling to find alternative permanent housing with no clear timeline for resolution. In the weeks following the launch of Operation Roar of Judah, Israeli military officials have stated the campaign’s stated goals include sweeping searches for unregistered weapons, dismantling what they label “terrorist infrastructure”, and interrogating dozens of Hebron residents. To date, forces have sealed off major sections of the city, carried out waves of raids and arrests, and pushed more than 3,100 Palestinians out of their residential neighborhoods. Israel’s sitting defense minister has publicly stated that displaced residents will not be granted permission to return to their homes until all purported “Hamas infrastructure” in Hebron has been fully dismantled. Data from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club confirms 47 Palestinians have been formally arrested across Hebron since the operation began, with hundreds more subjected to intrusive field interrogations at military checkpoints. The Commission Against the Wall and Settlements has documented that Israeli forces have demolished multi-unit residential buildings, targeted dozens of commercial premises including a local tile and ceramics company and multiple auto parts stores, and bulldozed or damaged roughly seven dunums (0.7 hectares) of privately owned agricultural land. The vast majority of displaced residents hail from the Deir Baha and al-Jalada neighborhoods in western Hebron. Hebron’s city mayor Yousef al-Jabari confirmed that 488 families have been forced to evacuate their homes, impacting over 3,100 people in total. The city’s dedicated Support and Relief Committee, established to coordinate the crisis response, notes that the displaced population includes more than 1,000 children, dozens of elderly residents, pregnant and breastfeeding women, people living with disabilities, and individuals with chronic health conditions who require consistent medical care. As of the latest count, 198 displaced families are staying with host relatives, 19 have secured temporary rented accommodation, 22 have arranged other informal housing solutions, and a staggering 177 families report having no safe, stable place to shelter at all. Hamza Shabana, a 33-year-old father of a two-year-old daughter, lived with his wife in an eight-story residential building in Ein Deir Baha that housed at least 160 total residents. At dawn on the first Saturday of the operation, the family was forced to flee at gunpoint after Israeli troops surrounded the building and blared evacuation orders over loudspeakers, with no consideration for the vulnerable children and elderly people residing inside. “My wife, our little girl and I left without being able to grab anything more than two days’ worth of clothes; we walked out of our home with heavy, broken hearts,” Shabana recounted. Since that day, he and his small family have been bouncing between different relatives’ homes, sleeping in a different location almost every night. “There is no stability at all, and we are all living in fear of an unknown future,” he said. As the most populous governorate in the occupied West Bank, Hebron had an estimated population of 874,000 residents at the end of 2025, accounting for 15.7% of the total population of the State of Palestine. It also serves as a critical regional economic and industrial hub, with a diverse manufacturing ecosystem spanning food processing, leather goods, plastic production, footwear, stone and marble quarrying, jewellery production, and cross-regional trade. But the ongoing military operation and full closures imposed on the city’s entry and exit points are inflicting catastrophic damage on local livelihoods. Abdo Idris, head of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Hebron, revealed that total verified economic losses have already reached millions of shekels, with warnings that cumulative damages could soon climb into the tens of millions of shekels if the siege persists. Mayor al-Jabari added that the operation has brought industrial and commercial activity to a near standstill: factories have been forced to shutter their operations, workers are blocked from reaching their places of employment, and the flow of goods and critical raw materials in and out of the city has been almost completely obstructed. The Hebron municipality is currently collaborating with local economic authorities to conduct full damage assessments of destroyed infrastructure and commercial properties, but the ongoing military siege has prevented inspectors from accessing some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods. Al-Jabari warned that a prolonged military assault will deepen existing economic losses, permanently disrupt longstanding factory operations, cut off workers from their salaries, and compound the city’s already severe pre-existing economic and financial crisis. Despite facing dwindling operational resources, al-Jabari confirmed the municipality is continuing to deliver core public services to residents, supporting families to remain in their homes where possible, and facilitating safe returns for displaced populations. “The municipality continues to carry out its duties despite a scarcity of resources with the aim of supporting the resilience of the residents,” he emphasized. Islam Hassouna, a professor of economics and business at Palestine Polytechnic University, explained that the city closures are creating a stranglehold on two-way trade: Hebron’s signature manufactured products are blocked from reaching markets across the West Bank and Israel, while essential supply chains of food, medicine, and raw materials cannot enter the city. The economic disruption is layered, Hassouna noted, extending far beyond lost production and trade revenue: “They also encompass the psychological and social impacts of the siege and the displacement of residents, bringing with them fear and anxiety that further stifle economic activity.”
作者： admin
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Macklemore begins Free Palestine tour after Ed Sheeran fallout
Grammy-nominated American rapper Macklemore, legal name Benjamin Haggerty, has officially kicked off his self-organized ‘Free Palestine’ tour with a thunderous sold-out 13,000-capacity show at Dublin’s 3Arena, mere weeks after a high-profile fallout led to his removal from Ed Sheeran’s international Loop Tour. The tour, which will make subsequent stops in Paris and London, is structured to funnel 100% of its generated proceeds to grassroots organizations delivering direct support to Palestinian communities amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.
The chain of events that sparked the new tour traces back to early September, when Macklemore, performing as Sheeran’s opening act at a New Jersey stadium, took the stage to publicly declare his solidarity with Palestinian populations, uttering the phrase ‘Free Palestine’ and debuting a new track dedicated to pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University that included lyrics critical of Israeli military operations in Gaza. He repeated these remarks at two subsequent tour stops, describing the death toll from Israel’s Gaza campaign as a genocide – a characterization the Israeli government explicitly rejects. The comments drew sharp condemnation from major Jewish advocacy groups, as well as billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft, who publicly accused the rapper of promoting hate speech and antisemitic rhetoric.
On September 14, Macklemore was formally removed from Sheeran’s tour lineup. In the immediate aftermath, the rapper publicly alleged that a coalition of stadium operators had coordinated to force his ouster. Sheeran later clarified publicly that the decision had been made unilaterally by his tour promoter, Messina Touring Group, and was not a call he had initiated. The fallout rippled across the entire production: all remaining supporting acts on Sheeran’s tour dropped out in a show of solidarity with Macklemore, prompting widespread fan backlash that eventually led Sheeran to address the controversy directly during a Philadelphia tour stop. The British pop star apologized for mismanaging the situation, described the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people and saw 251 civilians taken hostage as ‘horrific’, and characterized the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza as ‘unjustifiable and disproportionate’, framing the broader crisis as a pressing humanitarian issue.
Against that charged backdrop, Macklemore’s Dublin debut drew throngs of dedicated fans who traveled from across Ireland and Northern Ireland hours before venue doors opened. Many attendees arrived draped in Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, Palestinian national jerseys, and paired Palestinian flags with Irish tricolors, while street vendors outside the arena sold Palestinian-themed merchandise alongside branded goods from beloved Irish rap trio Kneecap. For Nicola McCollough, who made the trip from Belfast with her 13-year-old daughter Lily Rose Murphy for the teen’s very first live concert, the event represented far more than a typical gig. ‘If you have a platform this big, you have a responsibility to speak up for people who don’t get to be heard on that stage,’ McCollough told reporters in the queue. Gillian Duffy, who traveled from Cork with her son Joshua, noted that demand for the show was so high Macklemore could easily have filled 10 consecutive Dublin dates, with every ticket selling out instantly. Fellow Cork attendee Jess O’Riordan called Macklemore’s removal from Sheeran’s tour ‘absolutely appalling’, adding that more public figures should follow his example of using their artistic platform to advocate for marginalized communities.
Official figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which the United Nations deems statistically reliable, confirm more than 70,000 people have been killed in Israeli military operations in the territory to date. The Israeli government maintains all its operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank are acts of self-defense conducted in full compliance with international humanitarian law. -
Trump’s media bans ‘deprive the public’, press freedom groups argue
A coalition of six plaintiffs comprising veteran journalists, free speech advocates, and constitutional scholars, represented by the Knight First Amendment Institute and Yale Law School’s Media and Information Access Clinic, has filed a formal civil lawsuit against the Trump administration in a New York federal court, challenging a series of selective press access restrictions implemented since Donald Trump took office for his second presidential term in January 2025. The legal action follows a wave of high-profile conflicts between the White House and established mainstream U.S. news outlets, stemming from the president’s longstanding public accusations that many legacy media organizations disseminate so-called “fake news.”
Court documents submitted as part of the new legal challenge argue that the White House’s targeted revocation and restriction of press credentials directly violate core protections enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees broad safeguards for freedom of speech and a free independent press. The six plaintiffs state in their filings that without unfettered access to official briefings, events, and information distributed through the White House press operation, they can no longer fulfill their professional obligations to deliver accurate, timely public interest reporting to their audiences. The policy, they emphasize, not only harms journalistic work but systematically deprives the general public of critical, unfiltered information about government activities. The filing further warns that the arbitrary nature of the restrictions creates a pervasive chilling effect: reporters covering the Trump administration are forced to self-censor critical coverage out of fear that even a single offhand or unflattering remark about the president could lead to their press access being summarily revoked without due process, distorting the integrity of all White House-related news coverage.
Unlike many civil litigation cases, the new lawsuit does not seek financial damages for the plaintiffs, only a formal judicial ruling that the administration’s selective press ban policy is unconstitutional, a permanent injunction blocking the White House from continuing to enforce such arbitrary access restrictions, and an order requiring the administration to cover the plaintiffs’ legal fees if the case is decided in their favor. The BBC has reached out to the White House for an official statement on the new lawsuit, but no response has been issued as of press time.
This legal action is the latest in a string of escalating disputes between the second Trump administration and mainstream U.S. media. Last month, the White House moved to fully bar reporters from CNN, Politico, and MSNOW from White House premises, a move that prompted dozens of other news organizations to temporarily pause participation in official White House press pools in a coordinated protest. The three affected outlets filed their own separate legal challenge, arguing the White House was illegally discriminating against their journalists purely based on the editorial content of their coverage. A federal judge subsequently issued a temporary restraining order mandating the White House restore full press credentials to the affected reporters while that lawsuit proceeds, and the journalists were allowed back on White House grounds shortly after the ruling.
Despite that preliminary court order, the administration has continued to enforce selective, targeted access restrictions against other outlets, drawing widespread condemnation from U.S. press freedom advocacy groups. CNN has publicly warned it will pursue additional legal action after its reporters were repeatedly denied boarding privileges on Air Force One to cover presidential travel. Just last week, the White House banned a correspondent from UK-based outlet The Independent from traveling with the presidential delegation to cover Trump’s official trip to Iowa, after the president publicly berated the reporter during an open press conference.
The administration has simultaneously expanded press access for conservative bloggers, social media influencers, and other non-traditional “new media” figures, framing the policy shift as an effort to introduce more diverse perspectives into White House press coverage. In February 2025, the White House also seized direct control of the long-running White House press pool — the small rotating group of journalists granted exclusive close access to the president for events not open to the full press corps — breaking with a more than 100-year-old precedent that had delegated pool management to the independent White House Correspondents’ Association. That same month, the administration restricted Associated Press journalists from entering high-security limited-access spaces including the Oval Office and Air Force One, in retaliation for the outlet’s editorial decision to use the standard geographic term “Gulf of Mexico” instead of the rebranded “Gulf of America” the Trump administration has mandated. The AP has filed its own separate First Amendment lawsuit over that restriction, which remains active in the courts.
Most recently, Trump confirmed via a post on his Truth Social platform that he is actively evaluating a plan to relocate the entire White House press corps off the main White House grounds, citing a need to repurpose the space currently occupied by the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room to rebuild a long-shuttered swimming pool underneath the facility.
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Trump administration illegally fired James Comey’s daughter, judge rules
A federal judge in New York has issued a landmark ruling finding that the U.S. Department of Justice unlawfully terminated Maurene Comey, a seasoned federal prosecutor and daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, in July 2025. The ruling, handed down by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman on a Monday, mandates that the Trump administration restore Comey to her prior post and award her full back pay covering the period between her July 2025 dismissal and December 2025, when she secured alternative employment.
Maurene Comey, who built a reputation as a top-tier legal talent handling some of the nation’s most high-stakes criminal cases, filed a civil suit against the federal government shortly after her ouster. She alleged that her firing was entirely motivated by her familial ties to James Comey – a prominent public critic of President Donald Trump – as well as baseless assumptions about her personal political leanings. At the time of her dismissal, Comey was only told the order originated from senior leadership in Washington, with no formal performance-related justification provided.
Court records confirm that over the course of her prosecutorial career, Comey earned consistent top-tier performance reviews from both supervisors and colleagues, and led high-profile prosecutions including those against deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and hip-hop figure Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was convicted on prostitution-related charges involving two former partners in 2024.
In his 62-page written ruling, Judge Furman emphasized that while the U.S. Attorney General holds the authority to remove federal prosecutors, that power is not unlimited: dismissals must follow established procedural protocols and be rooted in legitimate, non-partisan justifications. He concluded that Comey’s termination violated both due process protections enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and established federal civil service rules governing career public servants.
The Department of Justice released an official statement in response to the ruling, noting that agency leadership strongly disagrees with the judge’s findings and intends to file a formal appeal within the legally permitted timeline. Court filings from the DOJ previously claimed that the decision to fire Comey was made directly by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, with no connection to her family background.
Legal representatives for Maurene Comey framed the ruling as a far-reaching victory for all non-partisan civil servants. In their public statement, they noted: “This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law. It reaffirms that career public servants cannot be removed from their posts solely for their family connections or perceived political beliefs.”
The ruling unfolds against a broader backdrop of ongoing legal tensions between the Trump administration and James Comey, whose 2017 firing as FBI director sparked widespread controversy during Trump’s first presidential term. The Trump administration has twice pursued criminal charges against the former FBI director: the first, alleging James Comey lied to Congress, was dismissed by a separate judge who found the prosecuting official bringing the case had been unlawfully appointed. Earlier in 2025, the DOJ filed new charges against James Comey alleging he made a violent threat against President Trump via an Instagram post that showed seashells arranged to spell “86 47” – a reference prosecutors claim uses the slang term “86,” meaning to remove or eliminate someone, to incite harm against the 47th U.S. president. James Comey has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing in the matter.
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‘Maxxing’ selected as Dictionary.com word of the year
In a landmark announcement that captures a defining shift in contemporary U.S. linguistic and cultural trends, Dictionary.com has crowned “maxxing” its official 2026 Word of the Year, marking a stark evolution from the platform’s recent annual picks. A clipped, dynamic derivation of the verb “maximizing,” the versatile term functions both as a standalone concept and a flexible suffix that can be appended to nearly any noun to describe the act of pursuing an activity, habit, or outcome to its absolute fullest optimized potential, per an official statement from the reference platform. The selection breaks sharply from the site’s 2024 Word of the Year “demure” and 2025’s unexpected pick of the numeral-adjacent term “67,” and was informed by comprehensive analysis of U.S. social media discourse, mainstream news coverage, and user search volume across the platform. Steve Johnson, Director of Lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group, framed the term as far more than a passing viral slang trend: “Maxxing is the linguistic manifestation of a culture increasingly preoccupied with getting the most out of everything.” Usage data underscores the term’s explosive mainstream breakout: Dictionary.com’s metrics show that mentions of “maxxing” across digital media channels in August 2026 were nearly 19 times higher than the average monthly usage recorded across all of 2025. Before landing on the final selection, the Dictionary.com evaluation committee shortlisted a slate of competing candidates including “affordability,” “data centre,” “odyssey,” and the Gen Z shorthand “unc,” a truncated form of the noun “uncle.” The term’s widespread adoption is being driven largely by users under 30, particularly Gen Z and younger demographics who flood social media feeds with posts documenting their varied “maxxing” journeys to pursue niche forms of personal perfection. Fitness and wellness influencers regularly share content around “proteinmaxxing” and “fibermaxxing” to describe their hyper-optimized nutritional routines, while users prioritizing rest and recovery refer to their rigorous, intentional sleep improvement regimens as “sleepmaxxing.” One prominent content creator operating under the handle Clavicular has amassed tens of thousands of dedicated followers by documenting his extreme “looksmaxxing” project, a rigorous routine designed to hit rigid, self-defined attractiveness benchmarks focused on jawline definition, eye appearance, and overall physical physique. Johnson notes that the term’s broad cultural footprint does not signal a universal embrace of relentless productivity, however: “Whatever we’re doing, we want to push it further. But its expanding uses also reveal how people are responding to that impulse. Some embrace it. Some exaggerate it for laughs. Others subvert it entirely to describe stepping back from the relentless pursuit of more.” While the term has only recently exploded into mainstream consciousness, its roots stretch back decades in U.S. pop culture: most notably, the opening theme song of the hit 1990s sitcom *The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air* features Will Smith rapping the line, “Chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool,” marking an early, widely recognizable cultural reference to the core concept long before its 2020s viral resurgence.
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Heavenly Creatures killer Pauline Parker dies in Orkney, aged 88
The recent passing of 88-year-old Hilary Nathan in a Burray, Orkney care home has drawn a quiet final curtain on one of the most sensational, widely discussed criminal cases of 20th century New Zealand. To her fellow island residents, Nathan was a soft-spoken, deeply pious local who operated a small equestrian riding stable, living a low-profile, unassuming life far removed from the global notoriety of her youth. Seven decades prior, under her birth name Pauline Parker, 16-year-old Nathan made international headlines when she and her inseparable Christchurch Girls’ High School classmate Juliet Hulme were convicted of the brutal premeditated murder of Parker’s mother, Honora Parker. The pair, fearing that Hulme’s parents’ upcoming divorce and planned relocation to South Africa would tear their intense, fantasy-fueled friendship apart, lured Honora to a local park and bludgeoned her to death using a brick stuffed inside a stocking. Though their defense team mounted an insanity plea, both teens were found guilty of murder, and escaped the death penalty solely due to their young age. They served five years in separate New Zealand prisons, before a court ordered their permanent release under new, legally assigned identities, with a formal ban on them ever meeting again, and permanent expulsion from the country. By the time iconic New Zealand filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson began developing his 1994 feature *Heavenly Creatures*, the two women had long vanished from public view, their whereabouts unknown to all but a tiny handful of officials. Jackson told BBC’s Late Show in 1995 that he deliberately avoided leaning into the lurid, tabloid-driven “evil schoolgirl killers” narrative that had dominated global media coverage of the case decades earlier, instead seeking to unpack the complex, deeply intimate bond between the two teens that led to the violent tragedy. The film, which launched the careers of then-newcomers Melanie Lynskey (cast as Parker) and Kate Winslet (cast as Hulme), depicted how the pair’s isolated, hyper-imaginative shared fantasy world gradually spiraled into fatal violence. When the film hit theaters, it outed Hulme, who had built a highly successful career as a best-selling crime novelist under the new name Anne Perry, residing in the remote Scottish village of Portmahomack. Perry openly refused to watch the film at the time, telling producers the experience would feel like being publicly stripped naked for crowds to scrutinize, and expressed deep fear that the media frenzy surrounding the movie would endanger the privacy and safety of her family members who still lived in the small Highland community. Winslet, for her part, publicly pleaded for the public to respect Parker’s continued anonymity, noting the two women had spent 40 years working tirelessly to rebuild stable, peaceful lives after their release. Parker managed to stay out of the public eye until 2011, when true crime author and lawyer Peter Graham tracked her down while researching his case study *So Brilliantly Clever*, titled after excerpts from Parker’s diary that had been used as key evidence during the 1954 trial. By that point, now going by Hilary Nathan, she had first settled in rural Kent running a riding school, before relocating to Orkney to run a second stable, leading a reclusive, devout Catholic life within her tight-knit island community. Remarkably, for decades after their release, the two women lived only roughly 80 miles apart across northern Scotland, despite the official court order barring them from contact. Perry, a practicing Mormon whose crime fiction catalogue eventually sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, wove the raw, lived experiences of her youth into her work: her beloved amnesiac detective character William Monk, who grapples with uncertainty over his own identity and public perceptions of his moral character, was directly inspired by Perry’s decades-long struggle to outrun the public label of “monster” that followed her after the trial. She shared in a rare 2001 Newsnight Scotland interview that her past had instilled in her a profound sense of compassion for people who have committed harmful acts, and a lifelong preoccupation with questions of morality, forgiveness and second chances. Perry died in Los Angeles in 2023 at the age of 84, and Nathan’s recent passing brings the full, 70-year saga of the two women to a definitive close, a story defined both by unspeakable youthful violence and two separate, quiet journeys of redemption, reinvention and finding refuge in small, tight-knit communities. In her 2001 interview, Perry offered a quiet message of hope for anyone carrying the weight of past shame: “There’s more forgiveness, understanding and help out there than you might think.”
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Pope’s South American trip to go ahead as planned after lung cancer surgery
The Vatican has officially announced that Pope Leo XIV will proceed with his long-scheduled multi-nation South American pastoral tour in early November, just weeks after he completed a successful surgical procedure to remove a localized early-stage lung tumor. The 71-year-old pontiff first disclosed his upcoming operation to crowds of pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square during his weekly Sunday public audience on October 11, informing attendees that medical scans had identified a small, well-contained nodule on the lower lobe of his right lung that his care team recommended for removal. The 90-minute procedure took place in Rome on October 13, and he was discharged from the city’s Gemelli Hospital four days later on October 17. Leading thoracic surgeon Dr. Stefano Margaritora, who oversaw the operation, confirmed in a public medical update that the pontiff’s clinical status is “absolutely satisfactory”, with no remaining localized cancer and no medical contraindications that would prevent him from completing his planned international travel. In the weeks following his discharge, Pope Leo has followed a carefully calibrated recovery routine, adjusting his official ministry schedule in close consultation with his medical team to balance rest and gradual return to pastoral duties, while expressing profound gratitude for the global outpouring of prayers and well-wishes he has received from Catholic communities and members of the public across the world. The only adjustment to his public calendar so far has been the cancellation of a previously planned one-day visit to Assisi on October 27, a call made on the explicit recommendation of his doctors to prioritize his continued healing ahead of the transatlantic South American journey. Scheduled to run from November 6 through November 17, the full 12-day tour will cover 10 cities across three South American nations: Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. The pontiff has shared that he anticipates the trip with immense joy and enthusiasm, noting that the South American continent holds decades of deeply personal life and ministry memories for him. The itinerary will open in Uruguay on November 8, with stops in the capital Montevideo and other key regional population centers, before moving to Argentina for a six-day stay spanning November 11 to 17 that includes a landmark visit to the capital Buenos Aires. The final leg of the journey will take place in Peru, a nation where 76% of the population identifies as Catholic, with planned stops in Lima, Chiclayo, Cuzco, and Pucallpa. As confirmed by Lima Archbishop and Peruvian Cardinal Carlos Castillo, the tour will center outreach on three priority groups: young people, women who operate and lead local community food kitchens, and members of Peru’s diverse indigenous communities. Pope Leo shares uniquely deep personal ties to Peru, holding formal Peruvian citizenship after spending decades working in the country as a missionary. He was first dispatched to Peru by the Augustinian order as a 30-year-old missionary in 1985, first serving at the Chulucanas mission in the Piura region, before moving to a pastoral posting in Trujillo the following year. For nearly 30 years, he split his time between ministry work in Peru and the United States, and maintained a longstanding close connection to communities in Chiclayo where he resided for several years.
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Star Trek actor Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov, dies aged 90
Iconic American character actor Walter Koenig, best known for bringing the earnest, quick-witted Russian Starfleet navigator Pavel Chekov to life across decades of Star Trek franchise media, has passed away at 90 years old. Representatives for the performer confirmed in an official statement shared with the BBC that he died peacefully of natural causes related to old age at his North Hollywood residence on Sunday evening, surrounded by his daughter Danielle and niece.
First introduced in the second season of the groundbreaking 1960s original Star Trek series, Koenig’s Chekov quickly became a fan favorite: a wide-eyed, mop-topped young crewman whose playful running gag of claiming all global inventions originated in his home country injected consistent warmth and lighthearted humor into the USS Enterprise’s interstellar adventures alongside lead cast members William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), and George Takei (Hikaru Sulu). Born to Soviet Jewish immigrant parents with roots in Lithuania and raised in Manhattan after a childhood in Chicago, Koenig trained at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York alongside celebrated peers including James Caan, Christopher Lloyd, and Dabney Coleman. While network executives initially framed the character’s creation as a response to Soviet state newspaper Pravda’s criticism of the original series’ lack of Russian representation amid the height of the Cold War and Space Race, Koenig later publicly pushed back on that narrative, noting the character was primarily designed to attract younger teen viewers with a hairstyle modeled after popular 1960s pop groups The Beatles and The Monkees. The role ultimately aligned perfectly with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s core vision of a utopian interstellar future where former global rivals collaborated peacefully to explore the galaxy.
After the original series wrapped in 1969, Koenig reprised his Chekov role for all six of the original cast’s big-screen film installments released between 1979 and 1991, earning two separate nominations from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror for his standout performances in 1982’s *The Wrath of Khan* and 1986’s *The Voyage Home*. He later returned to the Star Trek universe for a brief cameo in 1994’s *Generations* and a 2023 voice role as President Anton Chekov in the streaming series *Star Trek: Picard*, in addition to writing the 1973 episode *The Infinite Vulcan* for the franchise’s animated spin-off. Beyond Star Trek, Koenig built a prolific career across film and television, most notably portraying the menacing, ruthless Psi Corps telepath Alfred Bester in cult 1990s sci-fi series *Babylon 5*. His other credits spanned classic titles including *Columbo*, *Futurama*, and a 2026 short film *Mr Fleischmann* that earned him a Platinum Award for Best Actor at the Independent Shorts Awards in recognition of his lifetime of craft.
Tributes poured in from across the entertainment industry this week, led by his long-time Star Trek co-star George Takei, who shared a heartfelt message on social media mourning the loss: “Walter was more than Chekov. He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man, and a loyal friend. Rest well, my dear friend. Keep navigating a steady course.” Koenig was preceded in death by his wife Judy Levitt, who appeared alongside him in three Star Trek films and *Babylon 5*, in 2022, and his son Andrew, a former *Growing Pains* cast member who died by suicide in 2010. He is survived by his daughter Danielle Koenig, an established actress and screenwriter known for her work on the animated series *Star vs. the Forces of Evil*, and a global legion of fans whose love for his work has spanned more than 50 years.
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Oil and shipping disruption adds urgency to Turkey’s renewable energy plans
Against a backdrop of escalating attacks on commercial maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz that have upended global oil and liquefied natural gas supply chains and undermined cross-border energy security, Turkey is accelerating a wide-ranging portfolio of climate action measures as it prepares to host the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in the southern coastal city of Antalya from November 9 to 20. New data compiled by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy confirms that October 2025 has already become the most dangerous month on record for commercial shipping operating in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding Middle Eastern waterways, with 28 verified attacks logged in the 30-day period alone, bringing the total number of incidents since the outbreak of regional hostilities between the US, Israel and Iran on February 28 to 113. The International Maritime Organisation further tallies 120 total disruptive events across the Strait of Hormuz and broader Middle East maritime zones, placing roughly 20,000 seafarers, port personnel and offshore energy staff at direct risk. As one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints, the Strait of Hormuz’s ongoing instability has underscored the urgent need for diversified, low-carbon energy frameworks that reduce reliance on volatile fossil fuel trade routes. Ankara’s pre-COP31 green roadmap spans energy market reform, clean maritime technology deployment, circular economy promotion and coastal ecological conservation, designed to position the country as a regional leader in equitable climate transition. As of October 10, 2025, Turkey’s total installed electricity capacity stands at 127.3 gigawatts, with renewable sources already accounting for 62% of that total, according to official figures from national energy markets operator Energy Exchange Istanbul (EPIAS). Taha Meli Arvas, EPIAS Chief Executive, outlined that the administration’s next core priority is scaling up national battery storage capacity to convert intermittent renewable energy into reliable baseload power, eliminating gaps in clean energy supply. EPIAS already administers the YEK-G system, a national renewable energy guarantee-of-origin platform that standardizes the issuance, trading and redemption of verified renewable electricity certificates, allowing domestic and international businesses to formally document their use of low-carbon power. The country is also developing a national emissions trading system (ETS), scheduled for a two-year pilot phase starting in 2026. The 2026 pilot year will operate as an emissions monitoring period, requiring participating industries to submit full, verified emissions reports without mandatory allowance surrenders, before the formal carbon pricing mechanism launches in 2027. Mustafa Aydin, EPIAS Deputy General Director for Environmental and Minerals Markets, explained that revenues generated from the ETS will be reinvested to support industrial decarbonization projects, a critical support structure for Turkish manufacturers that export heavily to the European Union, where the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will soon impose tariffs on imports with high embedded carbon content. EPIAS is currently running targeted training and support programs for domestic enterprises to help them meet CBAM reporting requirements and avoid unexpected cross-border compliance costs. Turkey’s clean transition efforts also extend to the maritime sector, a key segment of its national economy. In the Tuzla shipbuilding hub, local firm Navtek Naval Technologies has developed the ZeeTug line of zero-emission, battery-powered harbour tugboats, four of which are already in active commercial operation. Unlike traditional diesel-powered tugs, these electric vessels eliminate direct exhaust emissions and drastically cut operational noise pollution during in-port ship maneuvering. The country is also partnering with the Istanbul-based Zero Waste Foundation, established in 2023, to integrate circular economy principles into its national climate agenda. The foundation, led by President Samed Agirbas and advised by Christian Mensah, a former senior UN-Habitat official, is advancing initiatives targeting food waste reduction, methane emissions cuts, resource efficiency and cross-sector circular industrial practices. It has also proposed the creation of a dedicated Istanbul Platform that will connect zero-waste project developers with global green financing, track implementation progress and ensure accountability for climate commitments made during COP31. The framework moves far beyond basic waste disposal and recycling to prioritize upstream waste prevention, optimized material utilization and full emissions reduction across entire production and consumption value chains. Turkey’s pre-summit preparations also include targeted coastal ecosystem restoration and protection projects. In the Fethiye-Gocek protected marine area, a network of purpose-built buoys and designated mooring points, managed via the digital Deria mapping system, eliminates the need for recreational and commercial vessels to drop anchors on sensitive seabed seagrass meadows. These seagrass habitats act as critical feeding and breeding grounds for endangered marine species including sea turtles, dolphins and Mediterranean monk seals, while also sequestering vast amounts of carbon in their biomass and underlying sediments. The Zero Waste Foundation is also drafting a comprehensive conservation management plan for the Dalyan-Koycegiz region, which encompasses Lake Koycegiz, the connecting Dalyan canal network, extensive wetland and forest ecosystems, and Iztuzu Beach, one of the Mediterranean’s most important nesting sites for vulnerable loggerhead turtles. The upcoming COP31 summit will bring together national governments, private sector stakeholders and civil society groups from across the globe to align on accelerated climate action and deliver on previously agreed international emissions reduction commitments. For Turkey, the high-profile global gathering offers a unique platform to showcase its homegrown green transition strategies to an international audience, while the ongoing instability in the Strait of Hormuz has reinforced that building a resilient, low-carbon national energy system is no longer just a climate priority, but a critical national and regional energy security imperative.
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Anthropic’s blockbuster share listing – 5 surprising things we now know
Dario Amodei, the prominent CEO of AI developer Anthropic, has cemented his status as one of the most influential figures in the current generative artificial intelligence revolution, as his firm officially submitted its highly anticipated public listing prospectus to U.S. regulators. The 335-page regulatory filing, released ahead of the company’s historic Wall Street debut, lays out never-before-publicized details of the Claude chatbot maker’s revenue streams, operational expenditures, ownership structure, and unflinching assessments of both the transformative benefits and catastrophic risks posed by its cutting-edge technology.
Unlike standard public offering disclosures that outline typical commercial risks for investors, Anthropic’s list of hazard factors stands out for its unprecedented candor, explicitly warning that inadequately safeguarded advanced AI systems could pose existential, civilization-ending threats to the entire human race. The document further reveals that less than 12 months prior, a China-backed hacking group successfully manipulated the Claude model to breach security perimeters of dozens of high-stakes entities, spanning major tech corporations, leading financial institutions, chemical manufacturing facilities, and government agencies.
The filing also flags critical operational vulnerabilities for the fast-growing firm, noting that its ability to outpace competitors in rolling out increasingly capable AI models hinges entirely on unfettered access to specialized core infrastructure, including high-performance semiconductors and large-scale data centers. While Anthropic has not yet published its target share price range, industry analysts widely project its public market valuation could hit or exceed $2 trillion, which would make it the largest initial public offering in global history, though that final figure will be heavily shaped by its near-term financial performance.
The prospectus lays out eye-popping financial metrics for the first half of the current calendar year: the firm recorded a net loss of $80.7 billion, a figure double its total full-year loss for 2025, even as its six-month total revenue reached $16.2 billion. While top-line revenue is surging at a rapid clip, the company remains far from reaching profitability. In a striking show of financial strength, however, Anthropic holds $131.6 billion in readily accessible working capital, a cash reserve larger than the combined on-hand funds of tech giants Meta and Google. The firm warns that its operational costs will continue to spiral as it engages in cutthroat competition for top AI research talent and scarce computing resources, noting that data center leasing expenses alone have already hit $321.4 billion year to date.
Anthropic’s current revenue base is heavily concentrated: 250 large enterprise clients have each paid the firm a minimum of $10 million over the past 12 months, and a tiny cohort of just five of those clients accounts for 25% of its total revenue, creating significant exposure if any of those major accounts choose to leave. Even so, its overall enterprise customer count has exploded from roughly 1,500 last year to nearly 12,000 in the current 12-month period, fueled by a growth strategy that offers free access to Claude tools to individual and business users before converting them to paid subscribers over time – a strategy the firm claims has driven the fastest enterprise adoption rate of any technology in human history. The filing also acknowledges notable seasonal volatility in its business, including a 20% month-over-month drop in customer spending recorded this past January, following a typical lull in AI tool usage during the Christmas holiday period.
Balancing its stark warnings about AI risks, Anthropic reaffirms its core corporate mission to deliver widespread public benefit through responsible AI development, stating that it will not pursue commercial projects solely for profit or novelty unless they align with its goal of advancing long-term human welfare. The document outlines sweeping projected positive impacts of its technology, including accelerating medical breakthroughs to condense decades of pharmaceutical research into just a few years, delivering personalized disease detection and custom treatment plans, expanding equitable access to tailored education and affordable legal and financial advice, optimizing power grid efficiency and next-generation battery design, and supporting emerging economies to rapidly build out their technological capacities, all while driving sustained global economic growth.