Bangkok, the bustling capital of Thailand, has been formally declared a flood disaster zone following 48 hours of unrelenting heavy rainfall that has pushed the city’s drainage and water management infrastructure to its breaking point. According to local weather forecasts, additional precipitation is expected to hit the metropolitan area on Sunday, raising urgent concerns about worsening flooding and potential risks to public safety. The relentless downpour has already overwhelmed the city’s existing water systems, which were designed to handle moderate rainfall but lack the capacity to absorb the volume of water that has accumulated in recent days. Local authorities are expected to imminently activate emergency response protocols, including evacuations for at-risk neighborhoods, deployment of flood mitigation resources, and assessments of damage to residential and commercial properties across the city. The impending new round of rain has prompted officials to urge residents in low-lying areas to prepare for potential displacement and heed official safety guidance to avoid flood-related hazards.
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Security lapses at Utah campus where Charlie Kirk was killed, review says
Almost a year after high-profile conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during a public speaking event at Utah Valley University (UVU), an independent external review has confirmed a cascade of critical security gaps and missteps that left the event vulnerable to attack.
The September 2025 killing, which unfolded as Kirk addressed roughly 3,000 attendees in a campus courtyard surrounded by multi-story buildings, sent shockwaves across U.S. political and higher education circles. The shooting, carried out by a gunman firing from a nearby rooftop, left Kirk dead at 31 after he was struck in the neck and rushed to a local hospital.
The newly released report, commissioned by UVU and conducted by independent external security consultants, details a breakdown in pre-event planning that started months before the killing. Campus officials raised red flags as early as August 2025 about the planned outdoor courtyard venue, warning that its position ringed by tall structures created major security risks, and offered multiple alternative indoor locations for the event. Those concerns were overruled, however, when a representative from Kirk’s organization Turning Point USA insisted on retaining the courtyard, noting the activist had previously spoken at the site and the group was familiar with the space.
Far from taking control of security planning to address the identified risks, the report finds UVU deferred nearly all key safety decision-making to Turning Point USA. The university never completed a formal written security assessment of the venue, nor did it draft a structured event action plan aligned with standard protocols for high-profile public gatherings. Most critically, no documented line-of-sight assessment of surrounding buildings was conducted during planning, a basic step to identify potential sniper threats like the one that killed Kirk.
The review also uncovered major coordination failures between UVU’s campus police force and Kirk’s private security detail. A planned pre-event meeting between the university’s police chief and Turning Point’s security leadership never happened, and the two teams never held a joint security briefing or walked through the venue together. Reviewers noted this omission was a critical missed opportunity to flag unaddressed risks, clarify shared responsibilities, and implement additional protective measures before attendees arrived.
Notably, the review concluded no UVU employee or institutional representative acted in bad faith, nor did any party demonstrate willful, reckless disregard for attendee or speaker safety.
The findings have been embraced by Kirk’s family, who have long alleged the university’s negligence led to the activist’s death. The family has already filed a formal wrongful-death notice, a standard procedural step that opens the door to future civil litigation against the institution. Kirk’s family attorney Brett Parkinson said in a statement Friday that the independent review fully validates the concerns his clients have raised since the shooting.
“The buck stopped with UVU leadership and law enforcement,” Parkinson told the Associated Press. “Justice for Charlie and his family requires true accountability for UVU’s fatal shortcomings that day.” When reached for comment on the review’s conclusions, Turning Point USA declined to issue an independent statement and instead referred reporters to Parkinson’s remarks.
Beyond its findings of existing failures, the review puts forward a broad set of recommendations to overhaul UVU’s security protocols for major campus events. In response to the report, UVU President Jon Anderson committed the institution to implementing changes, saying the university has a responsibility to learn from the tragedy and follow through on all proposed safety updates.
Previous public reporting has already revealed additional gaps: campus police did not complete now-standard security procedures common for high-profile events, including drone surveillance of surrounding rooftops to monitor for potential threats, or basic entry-point security screenings such as bag checks and metal detector scans.
In the aftermath of the shooting, 30-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson was taken into custody and charged with aggravated murder. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and prosecutors have announced they will seek the death penalty in the case. The killing has reignited long-running national debates over gun violence, campus speech safety, and security protocols for high-profile public events at U.S. higher education institutions.
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Salah out of Egypt game because of artificial turf
In a decision that has drawn attention across African football circles, the Egypt men’s national football team has excluded star forward Mohamed Salah from its upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying match against South Sudan, with the artificial turf playing surface at the host venue cited as the core reason. The 34-year-old, who recently ended a storied nine-year tenure at Liverpool to join Turkey’s Trabzonspor, did not travel with the Egyptian squad to Juba, South Sudan’s capital, ahead of Tuesday’s fixture.
Salah did feature for Egypt in their most recent international outing, a goalless friendly draw against Angola held in Cairo on Friday. The winger started that match — Egypt’s first contest since the team advanced to the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the summer — but was substituted off by head coach Hossam Hassan after 60 minutes of play.
In an official statement confirming Salah’s omission, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) clarified that the decision to rest the star forward was reached jointly between the national team technical staff, led by Hassan, and Salah himself, with the agreement struck before the Angola fixture. The federation noted that the coaching staff prioritized this precautionary measure to protect the in-form player from potential harm, writing: “The Egypt national team’s technical staff… has decided to rest Mohamed Salah for the match against South Sudan scheduled for 29 September because of the playing surface… the technical staff preferred this approach in order to protect the player.”
Artificial turf has long been associated with a common public perception that it carries a higher risk of player injury compared to natural grass, even as modern manufacturing and design technologies have greatly improved the quality and safety of synthetic surfaces. Notably, multiple independent studies have found no conclusive empirical evidence to support the claim that artificial playing surfaces increase injury rates for football players.
Salah’s departure from Liverpool this past summer marked the end of an era for the Premier League club. Across nine seasons, he made 442 first-team appearances, scored 257 goals, and helped the club claim nine major honors, including multiple Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League crown. Since making the move to Trabzonspor, the Egyptian star has shown no signs of slowing down: in just six Turkish Super Lig matches so far this campaign, he has notched seven goals and provided two assists for his new club, cementing his status as one of the most impactful attacking players in the game. The decision to rest him for the upcoming qualifier underscores the priority both the national federation and Trabzonspor place on keeping the forward fit for the full season ahead.
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Huge crowds greet Pope in Paris ahead of open-air Mass
In a landmark display of public devotion that has captured the attention of France and the global Catholic community, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and onlookers packed central Paris on Saturday to welcome Pope Leo XIV ahead of his major open-air Mass, the centerpiece of his four-day official visit to the country.
The pontiff traveled along Paris’ iconic Champs-Élysées, traveling from the Arc de Triomphe toward Place de la Concorde in his popemobile, as cheering crowds lined the avenue to catch a glimpse of the leader of the Catholic Church. Chants of “Leo, Leo” echoed through the tree-lined boulevard as the Pope stopped at multiple points along the route to bless infants and exchange brief greetings with attendees. Organizers project that over 500,000 people will ultimately take part in the day’s Mass, for which a custom ceremonial altar has been constructed on the historic Place de la Concorde.
French political protocol has shaped the attendance of the country’s top leadership: President Emmanuel Macron, who held an hour-long private meeting with Pope Leo on Friday ahead of the visit’s public events, will not attend any of the papal Masses during the trip. The absence adheres to France’s long-standing strict legal separation of state and religious institutions. In his place, First Lady Brigitte Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will represent the French government at the Champs-Élysées Mass.
Multiple candidates vying for next year’s French presidential election have also signaled their attendance at the high-profile event. Hard-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and conservative figure Bruno Retailleau were already spotted at Place de la Concorde ahead of the ceremony, while prominent centrist politicians Edouard Philippe, the mayor of Le Havre and former prime minister, and Gabriel Attal, also former prime minister, are scheduled to join them. Former Prime Minister Francois Fillon was also among the early arrivals at the venue.
Earlier on Saturday, Pope Leo carried out a quieter, reflective engagement at Paris’ Maison Bakhita centre, a community organization that provides support to migrants and refugees. During the visit, he commended the group for its work centering people often pushed to the margins of society, saying the organization “invites us to see those who are invisible”. He reaffirmed his commitment to inclusive coexistence, noting that “it is possible to encounter one another and to live together in dignity and peace”, and highlighted the outsized “fundamental role of women in building a civilisation of love”.
The Pope’s visit opened on Friday with a wide-ranging address to French Church and state leaders at the Élysée Palace, where he offered a notable caution about the rising global influence of artificial intelligence. Leo warned that communities must avoid the risk of “losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines”.
Church officials frame the massive public turnout for the papal visit as a signal of growing spiritual interest among populations across France and broader Europe. The trip includes additional major engagements in the coming days: on Sunday, 150,000 registered attendees are expected to gather for a Mass at the famous Catholic sanctuary of Lourdes in the Pyrenees. On Monday, the Pope will travel to Metz in northeastern France to honor Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union and a devout Catholic who is currently being considered for beatification.
For Pope Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago in 1955, the visit carries personal as well as religious significance. His paternal grandmother was born in Le Havre, Normandy, in 1894; the Prevost family name, carried by the Pope today, originates from his great-grandmother’s French maiden name.
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Time’s no longer on Israel’s side in America
For 80 years, a core unspoken assumption has shaped every decision made by Israel’s political and national security leadership: unwavering American backing is not a contingent policy outcome, but an immutable fact of geopolitical life, as unchanging as the Mediterranean shoreline that borders Israel itself.
Across changing U.S. presidential terms, even when sitting presidents pressured or persuaded Israeli leaders to make concessions, the foundational structure of the relationship held: solid pro-Israel majorities in Congress, broad public sympathy among American voters, and a multi-billion-dollar annual aid package that renewed with little to no political friction. This assumption was not without its exceptions even decades ago: during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Washington only rushed critical resupplies to a struggling Israel Defense Forces after securing future diplomatic concessions that Jerusalem opposed. But for generations, the assumption held strong enough that Israeli strategists could count on U.S. support as a permanent structural given, not a variable to be negotiated or defended.
Today, that foundational assumption is at greater risk than any military defeat, Iranian nuclear advancement, or conflict with Hezbollah. The greatest long-term threat to Israel’s position in Washington is not on a battlefield—it is demographic, and the numbers already tell a clear story.
Gallup has tracked American sympathies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict every year since 2001. For every year of that survey up to 2025, sympathies for Israel outpaced those for the Palestinians, often by margins of more than 40 percentage points. In the 2026 survey, that streak broke for the first time: 41% of U.S. respondents now say they sympathize more with Palestinians, compared to 36% who side with Israel, a gap that falls within the poll’s margin of error but marks a historic turning point.
Data from Pew Research Center reinforces this trend from a different perspective: 60% of all U.S. adults now hold an unfavorable view of Israel, up from just 42% in 2022—a near doubling of negative sentiment in four years. A further 59% of Americans lack confidence in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of global affairs. Among Democratic voters, unfavorable views of Israel have now reached 80%.
For Israel, the only partial reprieve is that a full bipartisan collapse of support has not yet occurred: Republicans still sympathize with Israelis over Palestinians by a 70% to 13% margin. But the most damaging erosion is concentrated in the youngest cohorts of voters, cutting across both major U.S. political parties.
Gallup’s data shows a majority of 18-to-34-year-old Americans now sympathize with Palestinians, hitting a record 53%. Pew found that only 52% of Republicans under 30 express confidence in Donald Trump’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations, compared to 93% of Republicans over the age of 65. A 2025 youth survey conducted by Yale University measured this generational divide directly, finding it is larger than any other political split in American public life: Baby Boomers register a +34 score on a composite pro-Israel index, while Gen Z registers a -22—a 56-point generational swing that cannot be dismissed as random polling noise.
This shift is not reversible by more aggressive public diplomacy, polished social media influencer campaigns, or additional congressional delegations to Israeli-occupied territories. It is the natural product of differing generational formative experiences: older Americans came of age with the 1967 Six-Day War as their defining frame of reference, while younger Americans’ core understanding of the conflict is shaped by the live-streamed 2023-2025 Gaza war.
Israel’s political establishment has historically fallen back on a familiar argument: moments of crisis, like the October 7 attacks, trigger a rally-around-the-flag effect that will reverse drifting public opinion. The October 7 attacks tested this expectation, but the rally in U.S. public opinion faded after just a few months, failing to hold long-term.
The roots of the shift are structural, not emotional. American sympathy for Israel was never an unprompted cultural given. It was built on specific post-WWII and Cold War context: the living, widespread memory of the Holocaust among American voters, a Soviet-aligned bloc of Arab states opposing Israel, and a framing of Israel in American eyes as a small, embattled democracy rather than the regional military power it is today, boasting the world’s fourth-strongest air force.
Those contextual conditions will not return. Generational replacement is an cumulative, irreversible process: every election cycle, the electorate grows slightly more shaped by the experience of the Gaza war and slightly less shaped by the 1967 conflict.
Projecting current trends forward makes the coming shift easy to predict. The current $3.8 billion annual U.S. military aid package for Israel runs through 2028; negotiations for the next agreement will take place before a Congress where more members launched their political careers after October 7 than before it. Longstanding U.S. policies of automatic diplomatic cover for Israel at the UN Security Council, unconditional arms sales, and the routine “ironclad alliance” rhetoric recited by every U.S. administration since Bill Clinton—none of these are permanent natural laws. They are political outcomes, sustained by an electoral coalition that is steadily aging out of the electorate, replaced by voters who demand justification for the “ironclad” label rather than accepting it as given.
Within a decade, if current trends hold, the core debate in Washington will no longer be whether to support Israel, but on what terms. Israeli governments that have spent decades treating U.S. backing as an unconditional given will suddenly find themselves negotiating from a position they have never had to occupy before.
None of this is an irreversible fate. Public opinion is not an unchanging glacier; it shifts in response to events. A genuine diplomatic peace settlement, a change in Israel’s ruling government, or a different character to future crises could all alter the current trajectory. But one assumption Israel can no longer rely on is the long-held belief that time is on its side among the American public, that the bilateral relationship is a fixed asset rather than a renewable political arrangement that requires ongoing defense and justification.
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One dead and five missing after explosion destroys building close to Acropolis in Athens
A devastating explosion has torn through a three-story building in the heart of Athens’ historic Plaka district, killing at least one person and leaving five others unaccounted for, emergency officials have confirmed. The blast, which occurred on a quiet residential street between two of the Greek capital’s most iconic tourist landmarks—the Acropolis and the Temple of Olympian Zeus—completely leveled the structure, damaged adjacent properties and left thick rubble strewn across the surrounding road.
Local initial investigations point to a suspected gas leak as the likely trigger for the explosion, though official confirmation of the cause is still pending. First responders have deployed heavy excavators and thermal imaging equipment to comb through the wreckage in a race to locate the five missing people, who have not been officially identified by Greek authorities.
According to local media reports, the destroyed building operated as an unregulated holiday rental property, placing multiple international visitors inside at the time of the blast. Unconfirmed accounts name the missing individuals as four American tourists, one British national and one Greek citizen. Reuters, citing local police sources, reports that the missing people were first flagged when they failed to check in for their departing flight at Athens International Airport.
Rescue teams recovered the body of a female victim from the rubble early Saturday morning, and search operations have continued around the clock in the hours since. Plaka, the neighborhood where the explosion took place, is one of Athens’ most popular tourist areas, located just steps from the Acropolis and packed with accommodation, cafes and souvenir shops that draw millions of visitors each year.
The UK Foreign Office confirmed it had been contacted for comment by BBC News following reports of the missing British national. As of Saturday afternoon, emergency services have not issued any further updates on the status of the search or additional details about the victims.
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Report: UAE-owned Manchester City found guilty of financial rules breach
In a landmark ruling that threatens to upend the landscape of English top-flight football, Abu Dhabi-owned Premier League giant Manchester City has been found guilty of 114 out of 115 financial rule violations spanning the 2009–2018 period, according to a recent report from The Athletic. The high-stakes verdict carries the potential to reshape English football’s competitive balance and even strain diplomatic and economic ties between the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
The case against Manchester City dates back to a 2018 leak of internal club documents by German news outlet Der Spiegel. The leaked emails, exchanged between senior club executives, exposed a scheme that hid direct state-backed investment from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) as inflated commercial sponsorship revenue from two UAE state-controlled firms: airline Etihad and telecommunications provider Etisalat. Based on these revelations, the Premier League launched a multi-year investigation and formally brought 115 charges against the club in 2023.
The accusations against City center on multiple failures: the club allegedly withheld accurate financial records, hid the full details of payments to players and coaching staff, and consistently violated the league’s financial sustainability regulations. Sheikh Mansour, who currently serves as the UAE’s deputy prime minister and vice president, purchased Manchester City for approximately £200 million in 2008, transforming the historically mid-tier club into a global football powerhouse. Over the 15 years of his ownership, City has claimed eight Premier League titles, four FA Cups, seven League Cups, and the club’s first ever UEFA Champions League trophy, establishing unrivaled dominance in English domestic football. Three of those Premier League titles, three League Cups, and one FA Cup came during the period covered by the financial investigation.
While the independent commission has issued its guilty verdict, formal sanctions have not yet been finalized. Manchester City has confirmed it will appeal the ruling, though the BBC reports that the commission’s final punishment will be made public before the appeal process concludes. The most severe potential penalties include a massive fine, a points deduction steep enough to relegate the club to the second tier of English football, or in the most extreme outcome, permanent expulsion from the Premier League.
In anticipation of the guilty verdict, rival Premier League clubs have already begun mobilizing for legal action. The Athletic reports that multiple teams have retained top sports law specialists to assess potential compensation claims, with legal firms actively reaching out to clubs to outline their eligibility for damages stemming from City’s decade-long rule-breaking. The prospect of overturned past results or stripped titles has left competing clubs poised to pursue legal recourse to secure any prizes or financial rewards they would have gained had City not cheated the system.
Beyond the pitch, the ruling has created significant diplomatic and economic friction between the UAE and the UK. Bloomberg reported last month that UAE officials had already issued formal warnings that an adverse ruling against City would harm the increasingly warm bilateral relations between the two nations. Manchester City has grown into the UAE’s most high-profile flagship investment in the UK, far beyond just football: the club has a sprawling real estate development branded as Manchester City Residences in Abu Dhabi, a dedicated training academy with a public match day viewing facility, and a retail outlet on the capital’s popular Yas Island. The UAE has also poured billions of dollars into large-scale urban regeneration projects in East Manchester, developing new social housing and upgrading community sports infrastructure in what was once a depressed post-industrial district.
The issue also intersects with UK domestic politics, as new Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office in July 2024 after serving nine years as Mayor of Greater Manchester. During his tenure as mayor, Starmer repeatedly praised ADUG’s investment and the positive impact the Abu Dhabi group has had on regenerating East Manchester. In late July, shortly after taking office as prime minister, Starmer held his first official phone call with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mansour’s brother, as part of a push to attract large-scale foreign investment from wealthy Gulf allies like the UAE. It remains unclear how the guilty verdict will affect these ongoing economic and diplomatic outreach efforts.
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Bangkok roads submerged as flood disaster declared
Two full days of nonstop heavy rainfall have inundated Thailand’s capital Bangkok, pushing local authorities to declare a citywide flood emergency and urge residents to take urgent safety precautions.
The downpour, which began earlier this week, has overwhelmed Bangkok’s already strained drainage infrastructure, turning major thoroughfares into stagnant waterways and worsening the capital’s notoriously gridlocked traffic into widespread chaos. While monsoon thunderstorms are a regular seasonal occurrence in Thailand this time of year, the intensity of the recent extreme weather has far outpaced the city’s capacity to manage runoff. Multiple canals crisscrossing the urban area have already burst their banks, and forecasts calling for continued precipitation through the coming week have amplified fears that more waterways will overflow.
Local officials have issued urgent guidance for residents: people across the city are advised to remain at home unless travel is absolutely essential, and households located in low-lying areas adjacent to canals have been told to relocate all valuable belongings to upper floors of their properties to avoid water damage. All 50 administrative districts that make up the greater Bangkok area have been officially classified as emergency disaster zones, with the city’s governor Chadchart Sittipunt confirming that eastern districts have suffered the worst impacts of the deluge.
In an interview with AFP, Chadchart outlined the scope of the ongoing response challenge, noting, “The rain keeps falling and we are doing our best. We are trying to pump the water out, but the water in canals are full… The risk areas are those who live near canals. Every canal is now filled.”
Residents in flood-prone neighborhoods are already grappling with deep, disruptive flooding that many say is worse than the devastating 2011 nationwide flood event that claimed hundreds of lives across Thailand over three months. Somkid Pheuk-ngam, a 67-year-old small business owner who lives alongside a canal just north of central Bangkok, described the ongoing crisis to AFP: “The water keeps coming in. It’s hard to go out now. It’s like at my waist level now. I cannot go anywhere. I have been closing my shop for two days now.”
As of Friday, the Thai Meteorological Department projects that the heavy rain will continue through at least Sunday, and will persist across central parts of the country through the coming week. The low-pressure system driving the intense downpours is forecast to shift deeper into central Thailand in the coming days. Importantly, no casualties have been reported in Bangkok as of this update, a stark contrast to the deadly 2011 flood that remains one of the worst natural disasters in recent Thai history.
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Disaster declared as heavy rains spark Bangkok flooding
After days of unrelenting heavy rainfall that has deluged large swathes of the Thai capital, officials have formally declared a disaster amid widespread flooding that has disrupted daily life for hundreds of thousands of residents. The near-continuous downpours, which have pounded the Bangkok metropolitan area for nearly a week, have overwhelmed the city’s aging drainage infrastructure, leaving major thoroughfares, residential neighborhoods, and commercial districts submerged under waist-deep water in the hardest-hit zones. Local emergency management teams have been deployed across the city to conduct evacuations of at-risk neighborhoods, distribute emergency food and clean drinking water, and work to clear blocked drainage canals that have exacerbated the flood spread. Commuters have faced massive disruptions to public transit, with several suburban rail lines suspending service after tracks were submerged, and many major roads remaining impassable to passenger vehicles. The disaster declaration unlocks additional national emergency funding and resources to support response and recovery efforts, as meteorologists warn that scattered rain showers could continue through the end of the week, raising concerns about further flood worsening in low-lying areas of the capital. Bangkok, which sits barely above sea level, has long faced growing flood risk as climate change increases the intensity of monsoon season downpours across Southeast Asia, and urban development has reduced the natural absorption capacity of surrounding land.
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White House bars CNN from travelling with Trump on Air Force One
The long-running conflict between the Trump White House and major U.S. media outlets has escalated once again, with the administration barring CNN from accompanying President Donald Trump on an Air Force One trip to Tennessee this Saturday. CNN was originally listed to join the presidential travel pool for Trump’s visit to Knoxville, where he is scheduled to attend a high-profile college American football matchup between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas at Neyland Stadium. However, a revised media pool schedule released by the White House on Friday night omitted CNN entirely, with no other outlet named to take its place on the trip.