News Desk

Oct. 31 (UPI) — Paraguayan President Santiago Peña has signed a decree designating Brazil’s criminal groups Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, as terrorist organizations “because of their actions that threaten Paraguay’s national sovereignty and institutional stability.”

The decree says the designation aligns with a state policy reaffirming the country’s commitment to democracy, the rule of law and national sovereignty. It also allows for tougher penalties and strengthens international cooperation on security and extradition.

“For us, there is no doubt that these are criminal groups seeking to destabilize countries, and we must confront them,” Peña said on TV Paraguay.

The move follows a major operation by Brazil’s state police targeting organized crime in two Rio de Janeiro favelas, which left more than 120 people dead, many of them believed to be members of Comando Vermelho. Brazilian authorities described it as one of the deadliest anti-crime operations in recent years.

In response, Paraguay’s National Defense Council ordered the highest level of alert along the entire border with Brazil and instructed the armed forces, National Police and Migration Directorate to increase personnel and resources to bolster national security.

Authorities also announced coordination with security forces from Brazil and Argentina to conduct joint patrols and surveillance operations at border crossings and transit zones to prevent members of those criminal groups from entering the country.

Interior Minister Enrique Riera said the operational plan is underway, prioritizing intelligence work, drone-based aerial surveillance and coordination between military and police units.

The plan also calls for intensifying efforts against smuggling and organized crime, especially at the end of the year.

Riera added that security will be reinforced at prisons housing members of these criminal organizations.

According to Paraguayan media, both criminal organizations have a strong presence along the Paraguay-Brazil border, where they operate networks involved in drug and arms trafficking and money laundering.

The PCC has been operating in Paraguay for more than a decade, with a history of prison riots and executions, while Comando Vermelho has also expanded its influence in recent years, particularly in the country’s northern region, the Paraguayan newspaper ABC reported.

China and the United States have agreed to ease their trade war – for now.

There have been concessions from both, with some of the most painful measures put on hold for a year.

So, what tactics did each side use in the battle between the world’s two biggest economies? Will they work? And what’s the longer-term outlook: agreement, or more trouble ahead?

Presenter: Nick Clark

Guests:

Andy Mok – Senior Research Fellow at the Center for China and Globalization think tank in Beijing

Neil Thomas – Fellow on Chinese Politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis in Washington, DC

William Lee – Chief Economist at the Milken Institute in Los Angeles

A little over a year ago, Madi Diaz lay in bed in an apartment near Dodger Stadium sweating out a gnarly case of COVID-19.

The Nashville-based singer and songwriter had traveled to Los Angeles to record the follow-up to her album “Weird Faith,” which came out in early 2024 and would go on to earn two Grammy nominations, including one for a beautifully bummed-out duet with her friend Kacey Musgraves. But after three or four days of work in the studio, Diaz became sick just as the Dodgers were battling the Mets in last October’s National League Championship Series.

“I could literally see the stadium lights — there were drones everywhere and people honking and lighting things on fire,” she recalls. “I was just like, Why, L.A. — why?”

Her suffering in a city she once called home was worth it: “Fatal Optimist,” the LP Diaz eventually completed in time to release this month, is one of 2025’s most gripping — a bravely stripped-down set of songs about heartbreak and renewal arranged for little more than Diaz’s confiding voice and her folky acoustic guitar.

In the album’s opener, “Hope Less,” she wonders how far she might be willing to go to accommodate a lover’s neglect; “Good Liar” examines the self-deception necessary to keep putting up with it. Yet Diaz also thinks through the harm she’s doled out, as in “Flirting” (“I can’t change what happened, the moment was just what it was / Nothing to me, something to you”).

And then there’s the gutting “Heavy Metal,” in which she acknowledges that enduring the pain of a breakup has prepared her to deal with the inevitability of the next one.

“This record is me facing myself and going, ‘I have to stay in my body for this entire song,’ ” Diaz, 39, says on a recent afternoon during a return trip to L.A.

What makes the unguardedness of the music even more remarkable is that “Fatal Optimist” comes more than a decade and a half into a twisty-turny career that might’ve left Diaz more leathered than she sounds here.

Beyond making her own albums — “Fatal Optimist” is her sixth since she moved to Nashville in 2008 — she’s written songs for commercials and TV shows and for other artists including Maren Morris and Little Big Town; she’s sung backup for Miranda Lambert and Parker McCollum and even played guitar in Harry Styles’ band on tour in 2023.

Yet in a tender new song like “Feel Something,” about longing to “be someone who doesn’t know your middle name,” Diaz’s singing reveals every bruise.

“Music is a life force for Madi,” says Bethany Cosentino, the Best Coast frontwoman who tapped Diaz as a songwriting partner for her 2023 solo album, “Natural Disaster.” “She has to do it, and it’s so authentic and so real and so raw because it’s not coming from this place of ‘Well, guess I gotta go make another record.’ ”

“If she doesn’t put those emotions somewhere,” Cosentino adds, “I think she’ll implode.”

Which doesn’t mean that putting out a record as vulnerable as “Fatal Optimist” hasn’t felt scary.

“I was gonna say it’s like the emperor’s new clothes,” Diaz says with a laugh over coffee in Griffith Park. “But I know I’m not wearing any clothes.” Dressed in shorts and a denim shirt, her hair tucked beneath a ball cap, she sits at a picnic table outside a café she liked when she lived in L.A. from 2012 to 2017.

“For a second, I was like, Damn, I wish I’d brought my hiking shoes — could’ve gone up to the top,” she says. “I would absolutely have done that as my masochistic 28-year-old self. Hike in the heat of the day? Let’s go.”

Diaz points to a couple of touchstones for her LP’s bare-bones approach, among them Patty Griffin’s “Living With Ghosts” — “a star in Orion’s Belt,” as she puts it — and “obviously Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue,’ ” she says. “That’s just a duh.”

Like Mitchell, Diaz achieves a clarity of thought in her songs that only intensifies the heartache; also like Mitchell (not to mention Taylor Swift), she can describe a partner’s failings with unsparing precision.

“Some ‘I’m sorry’s’ are so selfish / And you just act like you can’t help it,” she sings in “Why’d You Have to Bring Me Flowers,” one of a handful of what she jokingly calls “folk diss tracks” on “Fatal Optimist.” It goes on: “Bulls— smile, in denial / We’ve been circling the block / We’ve been in a downward spiral.”

“There are definitely a couple songs on this record where I felt apologetic as I was writing it,” she says. “Then when I finished it was just like: It had to be done.” She grins. “They’re tough,” she says of her exes. “They’ll be fine.”

Asked whether any of her songs express her feelings in a way she wasn’t capable of doing with the ex in question, she nods.

“I’d say I could get about halfway there in real life,” she says. “It’s almost like I couldn’t finish the thought within the relationship, and that was the signal that we couldn’t go onward. Or that I couldn’t go onward.”

Has writing about love taught her anything about herself and what she wants?

“I travel a lot — I’m all over the place,” she says. “And I really like to come and go as I please. But it’s funny: In retrospect, I think maybe I was chasing a relationship that was a little more traditional, even though I don’t know if I can actually be that way. So that’s a weird thing to be aware of.”

Madi Diaz in Pasadena.

(Annie Noelker / For The Times)

Diaz grew up home-schooled in a Quaker household in rural Pennsylvania and learned to play piano and guitar when she was young; when she was a teenager, her talent took her to Philadelphia’s Paul Green School of Rock, whose founder was later accused of abuse and sexual misconduct by dozens of former students, including Diaz. (“It was a really toxic place,” she told the New York Times.)

She studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston before dropping out and heading to Nashville, where she started making her name as a singer-songwriter operating at the intersection of country and pop. After a few years of fruitful grinding, she came to L.A. to “see how high the ceiling was,” she says, and quickly fell in with a group of musician friends.

“We used to love going to the Smog Cutter,” she says of the shuttered Silver Lake dive bar, “to have a couple Bud Lights and sing Mariah Carey really poorly.”

Diaz was making money writing songs — Connie Britton sang one of her tunes on the soapy ABC series “Nashville” — but she struggled to achieve the kind of liftoff she was looking for as an artist. “Turned out the ceiling was quite high,” she says now with a laugh.

Along with the professional frustrations came “a nuclear explosion of a breakup” with a fellow songwriter, Teddy Geiger. “They were going through a huge identity shift,” Diaz says of Geiger, who came out as transgender, “and we worked in the same industry, and it just kind of felt like there wasn’t a place for me here.”

Diaz returned to Nashville, which didn’t immediately super-charge her career. “I was bartending at Wilburn Street Tavern and making Jack White nachos,” she recalls. “He would never remember this, but I remember. I was like, This is my life now.”

In fact, her acclaimed 2021 album “History of a Feeling” — with songs inspired by the complicated dynamics of her and Geiger’s split — finally brought the kind of attention she’d been working toward. She signed with the respected indie label Anti- (whose other acts include Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman) and scored the road gig with Styles after he reached out via DM; she also became an in-demand presence in Nashville’s close-knit songwriting scene.

“I don’t know of anybody in town that doesn’t love Madi,” says Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, who adds that Diaz “has instincts about melodies that are all her own. Sometimes I’m thinking, ‘How’s she gonna fit that into the phrasing?’ But she always does.”

For “Fatal Optimist,” Diaz took an initial pass at recording her songs with a full band before deciding they called for the minimalist setup she landed on with her co-producer, Gabe Wax, at his studio in Burbank.

“We did it with no headphones, no click track, no grid,” she says. “It speeds up and slows down, and it goes in and out of tune as instruments do.” (One unlikely sonic inspiration was a singles collection by the pioneering riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, which she hailed for its “still-kind-of-figuring-it-out energy.”)

Diaz describes herself as a perfectionist but says “Fatal Optimist” was about “trying to find our way through the cracks of imperfection to break the ground and sit on the surface. I feel so proud that we let it live there.”

She’s touring behind the album this fall, playing solo shows — including a Nov. 20 date at the Highland Park Ebell Club — meant to preserve the album’s solitary vibe.

“I don’t know if I’d really thought that through when I made the decision,” she says with a laugh.

As good as she is on her own — and for all the torment she knows another relationship is likely to hold — “I’m a die-hard loyalist,” Diaz says. “I’m still looking for connection more than anything else.”

D66 party says no time to waste as begins challenge of finding three coalition partners on fractious centre-ground.

Dutch centrist leader Rob Jetten has claimed victory in a cliffhanger election dominated by immigration and housing after seeing off far-right contender Geert Wilders, saying his win proved populism can be beaten.

The 38-year-old head of the D66 party, which won the most votes in this week’s general election, is now set to become the youngest and first openly gay prime minister of the European Union’s fifth-largest economy.

“I think we’ve now shown to the rest of Europe and the world that it is possible to beat the populist movements if you campaign with a positive message for your country,” he said on Friday, as tallying from news agency ANP showed he was on course to win.

The pro-EU, liberal D66 tripled its seat count with an upbeat campaign and a surge in advertising spending, while Wilders and his PVV Freedom Party lost a large part of the support that had propelled him to a shock victory at the previous poll in 2023.

D66, which currently has 26 seats but could gain one more when every vote is counted, is now expected to lead talks to form a coalition government, a process that usually takes months.

The party will need to find at least three coalition partners to reach a simple majority in the 150-seat lower chamber of parliament, with the centre-right CDA (18 seats), the liberal VVD (22) and the left-wing Green/Labour group (20) viewed as contenders.

But there are questions about whether the VVD and Green/Labour will work together. VVD leader Dilan Yesilgoz said before the election an alliance with Green/Labour “would not work” and she wanted a centre-right coalition.

On Monday, the Green/Labour group will elect a new leader after former EU Vice President Frans Timmermans stepped down.

On Friday, Jetten urged mainstream parties from the left to the right to unite. “We want to find a majority that will eagerly work on issues such as the housing market, migration, climate and the economy,” he said.

‘Serious challenges’

Reporting from Amsterdam, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said Jetten faced “serious challenges” as informal coalition talks got under way, given that his party holds a razor-thin lead of only thousands of votes over Wilders and his PVV Freedom Party.

Jetten, an enthusiastic athlete who once ran as a pacemaker to Olympic champion Sifan Hassan, had said there was no time to waste “because the Dutch people are asking us to get to work”.

Wilders said Jetten was jumping the gun, pointing out that the results would only become official once the Electoral Council, rather than ANP – which collects the results from all municipalities in the Netherlands – had decided.

“How arrogant not to wait,” he wrote on X.

Although all mainstream parties had already ruled out working with him, Wilders had said he would demand to have a first crack at forming a coalition if his party was confirmed to have the most votes.

Although he saw support collapse, other far-right parties like the Forum for Democracy (FvD), a nationalist party that wants to withdraw from the EU’s Schengen system of open borders, performed well.

Confirmation of the result will come on Monday, when mail ballots cast by Dutch residents living abroad are counted.

Party leaders will discuss the next steps on Tuesday.

Relations nosedived in 2018 after Canada arrested a senior Huawei executive and have remained rocky ever since.

The leaders of China and Canada have taken a step towards mending the long-fractured ties between their countries with a meeting in South Korea during the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met on Friday and called for improving ties in a pragmatic and constructive manner, according to both sides.

“The leaders agreed that their meeting marked a turning point in the bilateral relationship,” a Canadian statement said.

Xi was quoted as saying that relations are showing signs of recovery, thanks to the joint efforts of both sides.

“We are willing to work together with Canada to take this meeting as an opportunity to promote the return of bilateral relations to a healthy, stable and sustainable track as soon as possible,” Xi said, according to an official report distributed by China’s state media.

Carney, who became prime minister in March, accepted an invitation from Xi to visit China, the Canadian statement said, without specifying any date.

Carney also later told reporters he was “very pleased” with the outcome.

“We now have a turning point in the relationship, a turning point that creates opportunities for Canadian families, for Canadian businesses and Canadian workers, and also creates a path to address current issues,” he said.

“The meeting signals a change in tone and an openness to relations at the highest levels, but this is not a return to strategic partnership,” said Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. “Canada needs to proceed with caution because there’s nothing to suggest the Chinese Communist Party’s actions have changed since the prime minister named China as a foreign security threat.”

She said Carney should keep talking with Chinese leaders but stay mindful of China’s threats to Canada’s security interests, including its efforts to play a greater role in Arctic affairs.

Shaky relations

Relations took a nosedive in late 2018 after Canadian authorities arrested a senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei as part of its extradition agreement with the United States. China then arrested two Canadian citizens and charged them with espionage.

Ties did not improve much even after the 2021 release of the two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and the Chinese executive, Meng Wanzhou, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder.

More recently, relations have been shaken by Canada’s decision to levy a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles (EVs) from China in 2024 and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminium. China retaliated with its own steep tariffs on canola, seafood and pork, and has offered to remove some of those import taxes if Canada drops the EV tariff.

Canada made the move last in tandem with the US.

The Canadian statement said that both leaders directed their officials to move quickly to resolve trade issues and irritants and discussed solutions for specific products such as EVs, canola and seafood.

Xi called for expanding “pragmatic” cooperation in areas such as the economy, trade and energy. Both Canada and China have been hit by tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

The attempt at rapprochement comes as Carney looks to diversify Canada’s trade away from the US and as Trump says he plans to raise tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10 percent. Canada’s free trade agreement with the US is up for review.

Earlier on Friday, Carney told a business event that the world of rules-based liberalised trade and investment had passed, adding that Canada aimed to double its non-US exports over the next decade.

Nadjibulla said China should not be viewed as the solution to Canada’s issues with the US, however.

“We should not diversify away from the US and go deeper into China,” she said. “Canada’s overdependence on both the US and China has been shown to be a vulnerability we cannot afford.”

An underrated period drama based on one of the most influential books of all time is available to watch for free

Viewers shouldn’t miss out on this incredible four-part drama based on a classic novel, as it’s available to watch without spending a penny.

This breathtaking adaptation was originally aired in 2023 on ITV and PBS Masterpiece in the US and has developed a passionate cult following despite not receiving critical fanfare at the time.

Based on the novel by Henry Fielding, Tom Jones brings the seminal 1749 novel to life like never before with an ensemble cast of British legends.

William Tell’s Solly McLeod portrays the titular downtrodden hero, a young man with mysterious parentage who falls in love with his spirited neighbour Sophia Western (played by Sophie Wilde).

Sophie decides to flee her arranged marriage to be with Tom, but the pair are kept apart by a series of increasingly fraught misadventures.

They’re accompanied by some of the most recognisable names from the British screen, including Coronation Street’s Lucy Fallon, Harry Potter’s Shirley Henderson, New Tricks’ Alun Armstrong and Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham.

Many viewers consider the drama an essential watch and it’s still currently available to stream for free on ITVX.

One 10/10 review from an IMDb user declared it “Gorgeous viewing with a top notch cast”.

They continued: “The cast list is like a who’s who of the cream of British talent, topped by two lovely and good looking leads.

“The episodes fair gallops on its way, cutting through the boring exposition and getting quickly to the important stuff, the love story between Tom and Sophia.”

The review continued to particularly praise Waddingham’s performance as Lady Bellaston, declaring “Seriously, put this woman in EVERYTHING”.

“If you get a chance, watch it in one go, it’s perfect lazy weekend viewing,” the reviewer concluded.

Another warned that fans of the book should expect some changes to the narrative, but admitted: “Even though the story is not like really really the one from the book is one pretty entertaining and very fun to watch. The choice of actors was really good and they did a great job.

“I really recommend for you to watch it if you want some light series combined with romance, a bit of jealousy and of course some British scenery.”

And a 9/10 review said: “This is what you want from English costume drama – and more. I really liked it.

“Fans of historical dramas and literary adaptations will find Tom Jones a must-watch, as it stays true to the spirit of the novel while making it accessible and enjoyable for modern audiences.”

In the mood for a cosy period romance with plenty of laughs and scenery-chewing performances from British greats? Look no further.

Tom Jones is available to stream on ITVX.

Oct. 31 (UPI) — The Panama Canal Authority plans to move forward with construction and subsequent concession of two new port terminals, with an estimated investment of $2.6 billion.

According to information released by the authority in a press release, the terminals are planned for two strategic areas along the canal, one on the Pacific coast in Corozal and the other on the Atlantic side at Telfers Island.

The goal of both projects is to expand container-handling capacity and strengthen Panama’s position as an interoceanic logistics hub.

With the addition of these two terminals, the goal is to increase container capacity from about 9.5 million (20-foot equivalent units per year to roughly 15 million. The projects also aim to expand port capacity in the interoceanic area, which is operating near its limit.

The Corozal port, on the Pacific coast, would take advantage of its proximity to the canal’s western entrance to capture container traffic using the interoceanic route. The Telfers Island project, on the Atlantic side, would cover the other end of the canal, facilitating both transshipment and cargo transfers between ocean routes.

Together, the two projects would reinforce Panama’s strategy to move beyond a transit route and establish itself as a logistics center, transshipment port and industrial platform for the region.

The authority said it expects to award the concessions by late 2026, allowing the terminals to begin operations in early 2029. It has begun discussions with representatives from about 20 global maritime operators to identify potential partners for the port development.

Representatives from APM Terminals (Denmark), Cosco Shipping Ports (China), CMA Terminals-CMA (France), DP World (United Arab Emirates), Hanseatic Global Terminals (Germany), MOL (Japan), PSA International (Singapore), SSA Marine-Carrix Group (United States) and Terminal Investment Limited (Switzerland) took part in the initial round of talks.

However, in Panama’s public debate, there is discussion over whether the concession model is the most appropriate way to develop the projects or if the authority should operate the terminals.

The discussion follows an audit by the Office of the Comptroller General into Panama Ports Co. — a subsidiary of China’s CK Hutchison that operates key terminals in the country– that found multimillion-dollar shortfalls in payments owed to the state, though the discrepancies were attributed to a “poorly negotiated” initial contract.

The Panama Canal also faces additional challenges in developing the new ports, including the need to secure supporting infrastructure, such as road access, dredging, water supply, logistics services and environmental impact studies required for these large-scale projects.

The initiative comes amid a global context in which container ships continue to grow in size, maritime routes seek greater efficiency and logistics hubs compete fiercely across Latin America.

As part of the Panama Canal’s Vision 2025-2035 plan, container terminals are seen as key components of the supporting infrastructure, second in importance only to the locks and navigation channels. Their development aims to strengthen port capacity and ensure the competitiveness of Panama’s maritime route.

In mid-September, the authority also announced development of a natural gas pipeline. The project aims to create a new overland energy route that would complement the existing canal by linking the Pacific and Atlantic coasts across Panama.

The pipeline would transport liquefied natural gas and other gases, such as propane and butane, from one ocean to the other without ships having to transit the canal. It would extend 47 miles and have the capacity to transfer up to 2.5 million barrels of gas per day.

The authority estimates that the project, which has drawn interest from about 45 energy companies, will cost between $4 billion and $5 billion. It also expects the concession to be awarded in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The “expansion of European club competitions” has led to there being just one game on 26 December in the English top flight, says the Premier League.

Boxing Day fixtures have been a long-standing tradition in English football but this year the only Premier League game will be Manchester United’s home match with Newcastle United (20:00 GMT).

While confirming the schedule for this year’s festive fixtures, the league’s communications manager George Haberman said: “The Premier League would like to acknowledge the circumstances that have led to a reduced number of matches on Boxing Day this season – impacting an important tradition in English football.

“There are now several challenges to Premier League fixture scheduling rooted in the expansion of European club competitions – which led to a revision of our domestic calendar ahead of last season, including changes to the FA Cup.

“This ultimately left the Premier League as a 33-weekend competition – fewer than previous seasons, despite being a 380-match competition since 1995.”

More to follow.

A COUPLE from a huge rock band have SPLIT after 22 years of marriage and historic “sexual misconduct” allegations.

The two members of a Canadian indie group have decided to call time on the relationship after over two decades together.

The couple in question are Arcade Fire‘s Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, who wed in 2003.

The pair announced their shock split on the band’s official Instagram page.

The statement read: “After a long and loving marriage, Win & Regine have decided to separate. They continue to love, admire and support each other as they co-parent their son.”

They added that their “bond as creative soulmates will endure, as will Arcade Fire. The band send their love and look forward to seeing you all on tour soon.”

FIRE STORM

SNL backlash as fans slam guest band Arcade Fire after sexual misconduct claims

THE POWER OF WE

I have always treated music as an avenue of philosophy, says Win Butler

Their split comes three years after Win was hit with misconduct claims from three women and a gender fluid individual.

The allegations included the sending of unsolicited explicit messages, coercive control, emotional abuse and physical assault.

Win responded to the allegations in 2022, admitting to having had relations with all of the claimants, however, he insisted each was consensual.

In a statement given to Pitchfork, he said, “While these relationships were all consensual, I am very sorry to anyone who I have hurt with my behaviour.

“As I look to the future, I am continuing to learn from my mistakes and working hard to become a better person, someone my son can be proud of. […]

“I’m sorry I wasn’t more aware and tuned in to the effect I have on people – I f**ked up, and while not an excuse, I will continue to look forward and heal what can be healed, and learn from past experiences.”

The band’s avant-garde sound has always been an acquired taste, though they have conquered the mainstream, headlining festivals such as Glastonbury and scoring three number one albums in the US.

It comes after Arcade Fire were recently slammed when they appeared on US TV show, Saturday Night Live.

The band performed two tracks from their forthcoming sixth album, Pink Elephant, in what was their second appearance on the show this series.

However, musically, their performance on May 10, left many viewers cold.

Others weren’t comfortable with the band getting such a prominent television gig after the troubling claims.

One person wrote on X, “If different people accusing you of sexual misconduct is not enough to prevent you being on this show twice in one season, how many people is?”

Another said, “Arcade Fire landing on SNL in the big 2025 is wild. Who the hell did Win Butler pay?”

Oct. 31 (UPI) — The FBI announced Friday that it had thwarted a terrorist attack in Michigan that was supposed to happen this weekend.

“This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend,” said FBI Director Kash Patel on X. “More details to come. Thanks to the men and women of FBI and law enforcement everywhere standing guard 24/7 and crushing our mission to defend the homeland.”

A spokesperson for the FBI Detroit field office confirmed to ABC News that there was law enforcement activity in Dearborn and Inkster on Friday. “There is no current threat to public safety,” the spokesperson added.

Four senior law enforcement officials familiar with the case told NBC News that the FBI in Detroit arrested a group of young people today who were plotting an attack with a possible reference to Halloween.

They said the group has some ties to foreign extremism but didn’t say which ones. Police were able to monitor the group in the greater Detroit area in the past several days to make sure no attack happened, the officials told NBC.

The Implications of Tinubu’s Presidential Pardon/ | RSS.com

On The Crisis Room, we’re following insecurity trends across Nigeria.

Tinubu’s presidential pardon has stirred debates across NIgeria. What does this mean for justice, accountability and Nigeria’s security? We ask these questions in this new episode of #TheCrisisRoom featuring Abba Hikima and Shettima DanAzumi.

Hosts: Salma and Salim

Guests: Abba Hikima and Shettima DanAzumi.

Audio producer: Anthony Asemota

Executive producer: Ahmad Salkida

If you’re like me, you spent a lot of time over the last few weeks reading about the unbelievably brazen Louvre museum heist. Not only did it provide a welcome respite from obsessing over the destruction of the East Wing, it also supplied an adrenaline boost for the imagination: Who on earth had the nerve to literally cut through a window in broad daylight and leap into the world’s most famous museum in order to grab nearly $102 million worth of crown jewels before escaping on a motor scooter?

My favorite article about the fiasco ran in the Atlantic under the headline “The Louvre Heist is Terrific,” with the subhed, “Here was a dreamy little crime in which no one really got hurt.” The French people beg to differ. In many circles, the crime signaled a glaring national failure. Either way, seven suspects have now been detained by police in connection with the crime, and we will have answers soon enough — even if nobody will ever see the jewels again.

The heist seemed ripped from the script of a Hollywood blockbuster — something along the lines of “Ocean’s Eleven,” starring Vincent Cassel and Omar Sy instead of George Clooney and Matt Damon. As such, it spawned a paroxysm of frenetic, click-sticky activity on social and legacy media alike. Newly-minted CBS news chief Bari Weiss reportedly suggested to staff that they interview “The Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown about the heist. And an online platform called Action Network that analyzes odds, mostly for betting and sports books, released a new U.S. study called “Top 10 Museums Most Vulnerable to a Heist.”

“The study estimates each museum’s implied probability of a heist, showing how visibility, value, and public access combine into a theoretical ‘heist appeal.’ It reflects exposure, not vulnerability. To be clear: we’re not predicting theft. We’re measuring where culture meets risk,” Action Network explained on its website.

It turns out that in Los Angeles, Getty Center and Los Angeles County Museum of Art have the most “heist-appeal,” according to the study. The former comes in at No. 4 on the list, and the latter at No. 7. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art sits in the top place, followed by Washington D.C.’s National Gallery of Art.

The study puts the implied probability of a heist at Getty Center at 3.9%, and gives this sunny description of the campus, “A hilltop postcard with galleries. Open vistas, bright courtyards, and art that draws camera phones nonstop, all under movie-worthy security.”

Movie-worthy security has me thinking: I might write a screenplay featuring a gang of criminals who make a daring escape on the Getty tram with Titian’s Venus and Adonis.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, planning my next great adventure. Here’s your arts and culture news for the week.

On our radar

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s opera “Hildegard” will be performed at the Wallis.

(Sarah Kirkland Snider)

Hildegard
With her new opera, “Hildegard,” which has its West Coast premiere as part of Los Angeles Opera’s Off-Grand series, Sarah Kirkland Snider joins a broad range of artists enraptured by the earliest remembered composer, Hildegard von Bingen. Her otherworldly sacred vocal music, along with her visionary writing, has made the 12th century mystic philosopher, medical doctor, natural historian and Benedictine abbess a source of late 20th and 21st century fascination. She shows up in texts about gardening, numinous Christianity and the Kabbalah. David Lynch was not the only filmmaker obsessed with the abbess. Her 900th birthday in 1998 was observed by a feminist composer and singer collective, Hildegurls, by inventively staging Hildegard’s luminous “Ordo Virtutum.” Now it is Snider’s turn, assisted by Elkhanah Pulitzer, for a full-scale Hildegard opera.
– Mark Swed
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Nov. 8; 2 p.m. Nov. 9. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. laopera.org

Janet Leigh in the famous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic thriller “Psycho.”

(Associated Press)

Psycho
The American Cinematheque celebrates the 65th anniversary of the unleashing of Norman Bates on moviegoers. “Alfred Hitchcock’s terrifying 1960 landmark forever upended the audience’s narrative expectations, changed theatrical exhibition models and probably led to reduced water bills nationwide,” wrote former Times film critic Justin Chang in 2016. “Accept no substitutes.”
7:30 p.m. Friday. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. americancinematheque.com

Gail Bean, Biko Eisen-Martin, seated, and Michael Rishawn, standing, star in “Table 17” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Corey Olsen)

Table 17
The West Coast premiere of this rom-com by Douglas Lyons (author of the Broadway comedy “Chicken & Biscuits”) concerns a formerly engaged man and woman who reunite at a restaurant to sift through the past with calm, friendly, objective detachment. What could possibly go wrong? This MCC Theater production, directed by Zhailon Levingston (“Cats: The Jellicle Ball”) features Gail Bean, Biko Eisen-Martin and Michael Rishawn in a play the New York Times described as “comfort food” that “satisfies a genuine craving.”
– Charles McNulty
Wednesday through Dec. 7. Geffen Playhouse’s Gil Cates Theater, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. geffenplayhouse.org

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY
Halloween
What better way to experience “All Hallows’ Eve” than by gorging on John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic and its chillingly insistent piano score with a group of like-minded souls. Jamie Lee Curtis laid the groundwork for the generations of scream queens to follow.
4:15 and 7 p.m. Vidiots, Eagle Theatre, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd. vidiotsfoundation.org

SATURDAY
Bluebeard’s Castle
The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble presents the American debut of this dark musical thriller laced with romance and horror. A hit in Europe and based on a medieval French fairy tale, it was written and directed by Sofia Streisand and features music by Sergey Rubalsky and Artem Petaykin; lyrics by Elena Hanpira; and choreography by Irina Lyahovskaya, with songs adapted for the English production by Nancy Magarill and Terra Naomi.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; through Nov. 23. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com

Día de Los Muertos
The Wallis delivers its first Family Fest of the season with a free celebration of the holiday featuring story time with Lil’ Libros authors, plus arts, crafts and learning activities; altar-building workshops with Self Help Graphics & Art; face painting by Color Me Face Painting; and a dance workshop and performance by the Pacifico Dance Company, highlighting traditional styles.
11 a.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

The People’s Party
Civics Is Sexy and the NAACP bring together artists, activists and community leaders for two days of film, music and comedy featuring Yasmin Elhady, Chris Dowd of Fishbone, Nic Novicki, Peyton Edmonds and many more.
11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. NAACP Hollywood Bureau, 5757 Wilshire Blvd. peoplesparty.civicsissexy.co

Pony Cam
The experimental Australian collective presents “Burnout Paradise,” in which four performers on treadmills attempt to complete a series of increasingly difficult, boundary-testing tasks in a comedic absurdist interpretation of overachievement.
8 p.m. Saturday; 6 p.m. Sunday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu

“What we lost in the Ocean,” 2022 (video still) by Ann Le.

(Ann Le)

A Tender Excavation
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions presents a group show of artists working from historical and familial photographic archives to create transformative new stories from Afro-Latinx, African American, Chinese American, Gabrielino/Tongva Nation, Korean American, Iraqi American, Latinx, Mexican, Mexican American, Peruvian American, Thai, Turkish American and Vietnamese American cultures and communities.
Opening reception, 2-5 p.m. Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, through Feb. 21, 2026. Cal State L.A., Luckman Gallery, 5151 State University Drive. theluckman.org

Faye Webster performs Saturday and Sunday at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

Faye Webster
The Atlanta-based singer-songwriter, backed by the 40-piece Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Wilkins, performs her indie-folk, alt-country and jazz R&B-infused songs.
8 p.m. Saturday; 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

SUNDAY
Written On Heaven
A musical portrait of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru, an Ethiopian nun and composer who died in 2023, featuring performances by pianists Thomas Feng and Gloria Cheng.
8 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Shatto Chapel at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, 540 S. Commonwealth Ave. mondayeveningconcerts.org

MONDAY

Actor Jeff Goldblum.

(Scott A Garfitt / AP)

An Evening with Jeff Goldblum
A conversation with the popular actor, musician and raconteur is followed by a 4K screening of Robert Altman’s 1976 country and gospel music epic “Nashville.”
7 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

TUESDAY
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
This Tony-winning jukebox spectacle inspired by the 2001 Baz Luhrmann movie, adapted for the stage by John Logan featuring anachronistic pop hits Elton John, Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna, Katy Perry and more, focuses on the star-crossed romance between a songwriter from a Ohio and the star of the titular nightclub.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, through Nov. 16. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd. broadwayinhollywood.com

WEDNESDAY
Listening by Moonrise
This seasonal series returns for an evening of music, culture and community with performances by Azucar LA, Juan Gabriel impersonator Marco Ortiz and King Dance.
6:30-9 p.m. Wednesday. Los Candiles Night Club, 2100 Cypress Ave., Glassell Park. clockshop.org

Mariology
The West Coast premiere of this collaboration between playwright Nancy Keystone and Critical Mass Performance Group explores all things Virgin Mary in a fifth-grade classroom that erupts into fantasy and rebellion.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, through Dec. 7 (check days and times). Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave. bostoncourtpasadena.org

THURSDAY
Marilyn Minter
A solo exhibition of the artist’s work features paintings from four separate but related bodies of work: large-scale portraits (including Nick Cave, Jane Fonda, Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman), the “Odalisque” and “After Guston” series, and a selection of Minter’s signature magnified mouths.
Opening, 6-8 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, through Dec. 20. Regen Projects, 6750 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. regenprojects.com

Music Restored
Violinist Adam Millstein and pianist Dominic Cheli perform works by Martinů, Kaprálová, Smetana and Schulhoff.
7 p.m. Colburn School, Thayer Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. colburnschool.edu

New Original Works (NOW)
REDCAT’s annual festival of experimental performance kicks off with a program of works by Maylee Todd, Jacob Wolff, Diana Wyenn and Ammunition Theatre Company. NOW 2025 continues with additional programming Nov. 13-15 and Nov. 20-22.
8 p.m Thursday-Saturday. REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Alan Edmunds, a psychologist, is the librettist and writer of “Perfect World,” a musical that tells the story of literary child prodigy Barbara Follet, at the El Portal Theatre.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

A ‘Perfect’ mystery
The little-known story of a child literary prodigy named Barbara Follett — who published her first novel at 12 and disappeared without a trace at 25 — is the subject of a world-premiere musical, “Perfect World,” at El Portal Theatre. I sat down with librettist and co-lyricist Alan Edmunds to talk about his interest in Follett’s story, and how a deep dive into her archives at Columbia University led him to believe it would be a good candidate for the stage.

Pasadena Playhouse classes ramp up
A bustling theater school is rising on the century-old campus of the Pasadena Playhouse. More than 400 students per semester are now participating in 14 classes tailored for kids as young as 4 years old, as well as adults in their 80s and everyone in-between. “Education is as core to us as the shows on stage,” producing artistic director Danny Feldman told me in a recent interview.

LACMA unionizes
Employees at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced earlier this week that they are forming a union, LACMA United, representing more than 300 workers from across all departments, including curators, educators, guest relations associates and others. The move comes just six months before the museum is scheduled to open its new $720-million David Geffen Galleries.

Suntory time for Dudamel
Times classical music critic Mark Swed flew to Tokyo to watch Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform two concerts of works by John Adams, Stravinsky and Mahler in Suntory Hall. The stop was part of an Asian tour that also includes Seoul and Taipei.

Manuel Oliver is photographed at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City on Tuesday, September 2, 2025. Oliver lost his son Joaquin “Guac” Oliver in the Parkland shooting. Manuel Oliver is now bringing his love of his son and his gun-reform activism to the stage in a one-man show called “Guac.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

A father grieves
Times theater critic Charles McNulty caught a performance of “Guac” at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Manuel Oliver’s powerful one-man show examines the death — and celebrates the life — of his son, 17-year-old Joaquín Oliver, who was one of 17 people killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. “The production, written and performed by Oliver, turns a parent’s grief into a theatrical work of activism,” writes McNulty.

Theater hot spot
If you know, you know — that’s the verdict on tiny New Theater Hollywood, which has lately taken on an outsize presence on formerly sleepy Theatre Row. “Opening post-pandemic, at a time of rising costs, dwindling audiences and little financial aid, New Theater Hollywood feels like an anomaly. It’s an intricate support system for practitioners to hone their craft in a space dedicated to original theatrical work,” writes Times contributor Emma Madden.

The girl is still having fun
A new musical adaptation of the 1988 film “Working Girl” is premiering at La Jolla Playhouse with score by ‘80s pop icon Cyndi Lauper. Ashley Lee has the scoop.

Wine meets art
The Donum Estate is home to 60 monumental sculptures by artists including Jaume Plensa, Louise Bourgeois, Ai Weiwei, Yayoi Kusama, Keith Haring, Doug Aitken, Robert Indiana and Anselm Kiefer, making it quite possibly “the largest private sculpture collection of any winery in the world,” writes Times contributor Sam Lubell in a story about the unique vineyard in California’s Carneros wine region.

La Jolla Playhouse

(File)

La Jolla, launchpad of musicals
La Jolla Playhouse announced its 2026/2027 season, featuring three world-premiere musicals: The Playhouse-commissioned “The Family Album” (book by Sam Chanse and music and lyrics by MILCK, a.k.a. Connie Lim); “GRIM” (book by Joey Orton and Brad Silnutzer, music and lyrics by Petro AP, Scott Hoying, Joey Orton and Brad Silnutzer): and David Henry Hwang’s “Particle Fever,” with music and lyrics by Bear McCreary and Zoe Sarnak, directed by Tony Award nominee Leigh Silverman.

D.C. arts purge continues
The White House fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts earlier this week, according to an exclusive in the Washington Post. That independent federal agency would have reviewed a number of President Trump’s construction projects, “including his planned triumphal arch and White House ballroom.”

Nobel laureate stripped of visa
The first African writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature has been stripped of his U.S. visa by the Trump administration. The Nigerian author and playwright, Wole Soyinka, received notice of the decision from a U.S. consulate in Lagos on Oct. 23, calling it a “rather curious love letter.”

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Happy Halloween! Looking for something truly scary to watch? Try Game 6 of the World Series, which takes place in Toronto tonight.

Police in Dearborn, Michigan, confirmed FBI operations had been conducted in the area, without offering details.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States has announced that it disrupted an alleged “terrorist attack” in the northern state of Michigan.

Few details were released about the operation or the suspects involved. In a social media post on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel pledged to reveal more information later on.

“This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend,” he wrote.

“Thanks to the men and women of FBI and law enforcement everywhere standing guard 24/7 and crushing our mission to defend the homeland.”

Patel did not specify which part of Michigan the FBI operation took place in. But in a separate social media post on Friday, the police department for the city of Dearborn noted that FBI agents had been active in its community.

It is unclear whether their presence pertained to the same operation or a different one.

“The Dearborn Police Department has been made aware that the FBI conducted operations in the city of Dearborn earlier this morning,” the department wrote. “We want to assure our residents that there is no threat to the community at this time.”

Located in southeast Michigan, near Detroit, Dearborn is known as the headquarters for the Ford Motor Company, and it is the first city in the US to have an Arab American majority.

The Detroit Free Press, a Michigan newspaper, reported there were also FBI operations in Inkster, another suburb of Detroit.

This is a developing story. More details to come.

For the first time, Sikorsky’s optionally-piloted UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter performed parachute drops, hovered on its own while sling loads were attached, and flew a simulated medical evacuation mission at the direction of an untrained individual onboard. This all took place at an exercise earlier this year, which also marked the first instance in which a member of the U.S. military had full control over the Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) Black Hawk. Sikorsky has been steadily expanding the OPV’s flight envelope and capabilities for years now, work that is now also feeding into its plan for its fully uncrewed U-Hawk drone.

Sikorsky, currently a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, brought the OPV Black Hawk to Exercise Northern Strike 25-2 back in August, but details about how the helicopter was utilized are only being shared now. The OPV’s participation in the event came through a partnership with the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Each year, the Michigan National Guard’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center (NADWC) hosts multiple iterations of Northern Strike, which features air, as well as ground and maritime components.

Flight testing of the OPV Black Hawk first started in 2019, and it flew for the first time without anyone on board three years later. At the core of the OPV is a fly-by-wire control system coupled with the MATRIX autonomy flight control software package. Development of MATRIX stretches back more than a decade now, and DARPA supported it early on through the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program.

At present, the semi-autonomous OPV is capable of flying along preset routes, which can be planned in advance of a sortie or on the fly in the field, all via a touch-screen interface on a tablet-like device. The helicopter has a degree of automated obstacle avoidance capability, and routes can also be manually altered by an operator while it is in flight. The pilot-optional Black Hawk does not require constant contact with a human operator to perform a mission, and it can act on instructions from multiple individuals at different points in a sortie. In addition, the control system allows for the performance of certain specific tasks, such as ordering the helicopter to go to a point and hold a hover there at a designated altitude. Just starting up and shutting down the OPV is done at the touch of a button, as well.

“Events like Northern Strike give us the opportunity to take user feedback and roll that into [MATRIX] software improvements as part of a continuous spiral of software loads,” Mike Baran, chief engineer at Sikorsky Innovations, told TWZ in an interview ahead of today’s announcements. “So over the past year, it’s [continued work on the OPV] been largely in the software area, and it enabled a lot of these missions that we performed successfully out at Northern Strike.”

It is important to note the OPV flew all of its sorties at Northern Strike 25-2 with a safety pilot on board. This is something that was dictated by the parameters of the exercise, which occurred within domestic U.S. airspace managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). There are strict regulations around where and when fully uncrewed aircraft can fly within the United States. In general, having a human pilot onboard also provides an additional margin of safety.

At Northern Strike 25-2, “a U.S. Army National Guard Sergeant First Class, trained in less than an hour, became the first soldier to independently plan, command, and execute OPV Black Hawk missions using the system’s handheld tablet,” according to a press release from Lockheed Martin today. “He directed the payload to a location 70 nautical miles away and commanded multiple precision airborne drops, marking the first time OPV Black Hawk operated fully under the control of an actual warfighter, instead of a trained test pilot or engineer.”

The Sergeant First Class in question, who has not been named, was also notably not a military aviator, which Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky say underscores the ease of training individuals to operate the OPV.

“The level of autonomy that the team has with the MATRIX technology and how that’s put into the [OPV] aircraft, it really takes an operator, not a pilot,” Ramsey Bentley, Sikorsky Advanced Programs Business Development Director, also told TWZ while speaking alongside chief engineer Baran.

For the precision parachute drops during Northern Strike 25-2, the OPV had first been directed to fly racetrack patterns over Lake Huron. Soldiers on board were responsible for actually releasing the payloads from the helicopter. Lockheed Martin’s press release also notes that this particular sortie was planned and executed while the operator was aboard a U.S. Coast Guard boat on the lake.

In addition, the “OPV Black Hawk completed its first-ever autonomous hookup of an external load while airborne,” according to the release. “Using its hover stability capabilities, the aircraft held position while soldiers quickly and efficiently attached a 2,900-pound water tank [trailer; also known colloquially as a water buffalo] without pilot intervention. The demonstration showed that a MATRIX-equipped aircraft can perform complex aerial resupply missions in the field.”

The OPV also carried Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) Family of Munitions (MFOM) ammunition ‘pods’ slung underneath multiple times during the exercise. Tracked M270 MLRS and the wheeled M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launch vehicles both fire various munitions via standardized MFOM pods.

Sling load operations, including hooking and unhooking payloads, as well as flying to a destination with a large object swinging below, can be complex and challenging.

“The amount of experience that a pilot has, especially doing sling load operations and hookups – it takes really years to develop that capability, and that additional sense, or that ‘air sense,’ if you would,” Bentley said. “It’s not very easy, hovering over a point that you can’t see underneath to do these hookups and things like that.”

“One of the things that we’ve heard from operators on the ground is that the MATRIX capability and the autonomy [on the OPV] actually provides a much more stable platform than with a human pilot on board,” he added. “When you bring the aircraft in through the tablet interface and you ask it to hold a 10-foot hover, it holds a 10-foot hover.”

“You’re not relying on a crew chief that’s frankly hanging out of a window or hanging out the back of the aircraft, kind of upside down,” to help keep the helicopter in the proper position, he further noted. With the OPV, “the operator himself kind of has that third-person viewpoint.”

Lastly, at Northern Strike 25-2, “a soldier then used OPV Black Hawk to conduct a simulated personnel recovery, including a tail-to-tail patient transfer to a piloted Black Hawk at an unimproved landing site,” according to Lockheed Martin’s release. “This was the first time an untrained soldier commanded an autonomous MEDEVAC [medical evacuation] recovery from inside the OPV Black Hawk aircraft.”

All of this underscores the potential benefits and flexibility that optionally piloted Black Hawks might offer, especially due to the reduced crewing requirements. Being able to perform missions, or just pre-position helicopters, without the need for a pilot would be a boon in many scenarios, while also helping to reduce physical and mental strain on aviators, particularly during high-tempo operations. DARPA’s aforementioned ALIAS program was focused heavily just on increasing safety margins by scaling back the workload for human pilots, as you can read more about here. Not needing to have any humans on board for certain missions would help reduce risk, which could open up new operational opportunities in or around more contested environments, as well.

In speaking with TWZ, Sikorsky’s Bentley offered a more complete vignette for how OPVs might be utilized in future operations.

“Think about contested logistics, where, at the load point, you’ve got soldiers on the ground … The aircraft runs through all the preflight checks and everything, just like a human pilot would,” he explained. So, with “the ability of the aircraft to be sitting there at a field site, a non-pilot operator walks up, cranks the aircraft, loads in his mission, the aircraft picks up, it hovers over, or it does its internal load operations, and then it takes off and departs along on the mission [route], avoiding obstacles, etc.”

“Then, once the aircraft gets to the destination, another operator can take command of the aircraft, and execute the load out or the drop of the load,” he continued. “Or the aircraft will land and the operator can shut it down, or whatever they need to do.”

“You know the key thing there is that that’s really a customer decision,” Bentley also said when asked specifically about whether there might be plans to demonstrate the ability of OPV to conduct air drops with personnel in the main cabin, but no one in the cockpit. “Obviously, we are very comfortable with the autonomy capability of the aircraft, … but when it comes to employment of the capability and technology, that’s really a customer decision on how they want to employ the asset.”

He added that the OPV’s capabilities, and that of the underlying MATRIX software, are expanding and evolving with a constant eye toward being scalable to meet individual customer demands, which will be based in part on “their permissions, their authorizations,” and what they learn as they “develop their individual techniques, tactics, and procedures.”

Work on the OPV is also now feeding into a larger vision of crewed, pilot-option, and/or fully uncrewed variations of the Black Hawk operating collaboratively together. Bentley noted that Sikorsky has previously envisioned OPVs flying out ahead of crewed Black Hawks with soldiers onboard to perform various tasks as part of a larger mission.

“Now you’ve got [fully uncrewed] U-Hawks out there in front, and that U-Hawk is delivering launched effects UASs [uncrewed aerial systems] ahead of the ground force, and then that U-Hawk lands in the landing zone and dispatches UGVs, uncrewed ground vehicles, ahead of the soldiers,” he said. “And now we’re doing that autonomy, uncrewed, both air and ground teaming, in the soldiers’ hands, setting the conditions before the soldiers ever arrive at the landing zone.”

Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin are also heavily pitching U-Hawk as a way to squeeze new capability out of older UH-60L model Black Hawks, which the U.S. Army is notably in the process of retiring. Converting L variants in U-Hawks has been presented as a relatively economical option that is able to leverage well-established global sustainment chains, as well.

“We think about the Black Hawk as an enduring platform. The Army’s said that it’s going to be around for another 50-plus years,” Bentley said when asked about any potential plans now for offering an OPV-type conversion option. “So our ability to take MATRIX technology and put that on enduring platforms is critical to developing new capability, and, frankly, doing it at a different price point.”

The exact difference in the price point between the U-Hawk and OPV configurations is unclear, but Sikorsky has noted in the past that the OPV has additional systems requirements because it is still rated for crewed flight. There are then distinct costs associated with meeting those demands.

Non-military customers for OPV Black Hawks, as well as U-Hawks, could also be in the wings. The current operator base for crewed Black Hawks already extends beyond armed forces. Sikorsky has already demonstrated the OPV’s ability to conduct a wildfire-fighting mission, which also involved working with a third party to develop unique additions to the MATRIX software for that role.

“So we were out in California in April of this year, working with a company called Rain. And Rain went in and developed a kind of a wildfire suppression algorithm and autonomy capability, where it uses the sensors on board OPV Hawk to spot the wildfire,” Bentley said. “And we were able to demonstrate autonomous wildfire suppression to include OPV going [and] finding the pool or the fill site for the Bambi Bucket.”

“And then once it filled up the Bambi Bucket with water, then the system [on] the aircraft would take off, and it would go toward a general area that the team designated as an area of interest,” he continued. “The sensors on board the aircraft … then would identify the fire through a FLIR [forward-looking infrared] camera. And then the Rain autonomy [package] would figure out the hot spot, figure out the approach path, and the dispersion of the water, and then it would command the OPV aircraft to fly the flight route. And then it commanded the water release also.”

Altogether, as the details about what happened at Northern Strike 25-2 have now further underscored, Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin continue to steadily build out the OPV Black Hawk’s capabilities, which could also now have implications for U-Hawk.

Contact the author: [email protected]

The horror film is hands down considered to be one of the scariest movies of all time and it’s only available to stream for free on BBC iPlayer for 16 more days.

The legend of the Blair Witch is easily one of the scariest tales to do the rounds in modern memory — and it all stemmed from a harmless horror film.

The Blair Witch Project (1999), written, directed and edited by Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick, is hands down considered to be one of the scariest documentary-style horror movies of all time.

It not only introduced the ‘found footage’ genre to horror films — seen since then in blockbuster hits like the Paranormal Activity franchise — but it’s also one of the most successful independent films of all time, originally made on a budget of $35,000–$60,000, with the final cost rising to between $200,000 and $750,000 after marketing and post-production.

The pseudo-documentary centers around three students, played by Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams, who set off on a hike into the Appalachian Mountains near Maryland’s Burkittsville to film a documentary about the Blair Witch — a local urban myth of the community.

Currently available to watch for free on BBC iPlayer for the next 16 days, the legend of the fictional Blair Witch was conceived by Sánchez and Myrick in 1993. The director-editor duo developed a 35-page screenplay in which the dialogue was to be improvised. Entering production in October of 1997, principal photography of The Blair Witch Project lasted all of eight days in total.

Close to 20 hours of footage was shot for the docu-film, which was then edited and whittled down to 82 minutes. The film first premiered at midnight on January 23, 1999 at the famed Sundance Film Festival and received rousing acclaim, following which its distribution rights were acquired for $1.1million.

It eventually received a theatrical release and went on to become a sleeper hit, grossing close to a whopping $250million at the global box-office. The Blair Witch Project is consistently listed as one of the scariest movies ever, and consistently ranks as the best found footage movie of all time on several prestigious lists. However, despite the movie’s success, the three main actors of the film reportedly lived in poverty till they sued the film studio that acquired its rights, eventually reaching a settlement worth $300,000 in 2000.

With a 86 per cent critics approval rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the documentary-style film is widely critically lauded. One reviewer says of the film: “[The Blair Witch Project is] the most effective and unsettling horror movie in quite a long time. Just to clarify: after seeing this, you will not sleep well. Invest in a night-light.”

While another writes: “The Blair Witch Project” is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. Not the goriest, the grossest, the weirdest, the eeriest, the sickest, the creepiest or the slimiest… Just flat out the scariest.”

A third critic has said: “No sequel or remake will ever match the power of what The Blair Witch Project managed to do a quarter of a century ago.”

While a fourth critic said: “I could tell you the story — give away every detail — and The Blair Witch Project would still freeze your blood.”

Viewers are equally impressed by the film, with one writing: “This movie is pure horror, it’s the scariest movie I have ever seen in my life, at the end, I was terrified. It all connects — the legend and the film. The Blair Witch Project is a masterpiece of pure terror, horror and suspense. Daniel Myrick is a genius!!”

Another audience review says: “Absolute classic, one of the most raw horror films out there.”

The Blair Witch Project is currently streaming for free on BBC iPlayer till November 16.

The New York City mayoral election is dominated by Democrats, a reflection of the US metropolis’s deeply liberal bent. But a Republican could make the difference in the race.

Candidate Curtis Sliwa has remained defiant ahead of the November 4 election, shrugging off appeals from some top conservatives to drop out and boost the chances of former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after being routed in June’s Democratic primary.

Some political observers see Sliwa’s exit as the only way for Cuomo to have a shot at defeating frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, who has surged to the top of voter polls on a Democratic Socialist platform.

“New Yorkers are tired of Andrew Cuomo, but Andrew Cuomo doesn’t seem to understand when ‘no’ means ‘no’,” said Rusat Ramgopal, Sliwa’s deputy campaign manager, with a pointed reference to the sexual misconduct allegations that forced Cuomo from his post as New York State’s governor in 2021.

Sliwa has also doled out blows to both of his opponents.

“Zohran, your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin, and Andrew, your failures could fill a public school library in New York City,” he said during the final mayoral debate on October 22.

Sliwa has also dipped into the same Islamophobic tropes perpetuated by Mamdani’s critics, falsely claiming during the final debate that the leading candidate supports “global jihad”.

Local showman or subway hero?

So who is Curtis Sliwa? It is a question that has dogged Sliwa since he rose to prominence as the leader of the Guardian Angels, a volunteer crime-fighting group that became famous for its patrols of the New York City subway system.

Supporters have identified with the do-it-yourself ethos of the group, which Sliwa started in 1979, when he was a 24-year-old night manager at a McDonald’s restaurant in the Bronx. Many continue to hail him as an emblem of New Yorkers stepping up when city administration fails.

“When people see that red beret, they think about subway safety, public safety. They remember what he’s done for the city,” Ramgopal said.

“He is a larger-than-life figure who’s been integral to New York life for so many decades at this point.”

Others have accused the Guardian Angels, who do not carry weapons, of perpetuating a dangerous brand of vigilantism. The group has also faced criticism for alleged racial profiling, demonising immigrants, and wrongfully accusing individuals of committing crimes.

On the campaign trail, Sliwa has regularly condemned “migrant” crime.

The authenticity of the group’s exploits have been scrutinised, with Sliwa admitting in 1992 that he faked some crimes to boost publicity.

In recent years, Sliwa has been a candidate in local politics, a radio host and a media personality.

What are his platforms?

Unsurprisingly, Sliwa has made public safety, particularly in the transit system, the focus of his campaign. Even as crime dropped, Sliwa maintained the city is “facing a crisis of crime, lawlessness and failed leadership”.

He has vowed to hire 7,000 new New York Police Department (NYPD) officers, re-up controversial police units, and — as his website puts it — “enhance proactive and intrusive policing strategies to target illegal firearm carriers, repeat offenders, and violent criminals before crimes occur”.

Critics have said those strategies have historically led to increased racial profiling, the over-policing of minority communities, and intrusions on civil liberties.

He has also pushed affordability, an issue that has been dominant this campaign season, pledging to overhaul the system the city currently uses to coordinate with affordable housing programmes.

In addition, Sliwa, who owns several cats, has made animal protection a key plank of his campaign.

What do supporters see in him?

As the only right-wing candidate in the race, Sliwa has strong support among registered Republicans, who comprise 11 percent of New York’s 4.7 million registered voters.

Despite rising to prominence decades ago, he continues to rally new supporters.

“His work with the Guardian Angels has resonated with me a lot,” Shan Singh, a 30-year-old cab driver from Richmond Hill, Queens, told Al Jazeera.

Singh had previously been a Democrat but switched his support to US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election. He perceives the recent protests that have swept the city as dangerous.

The fact that Sliwa is trailing in the polls, he added, is not enough to lose his vote.

“Regardless of the numbers, Curtis is the person who seems most real to me,” he said.

Russell, a 28-year-old from Brooklyn who asked that his last name be withheld, came out to show support for Sliwa ahead of the first mayoral debate in midtown Manhattan.

He said both Cuomo and Mamdani were too soft on crime, and he took particular issue with their support for bail reform programmes, designed to eliminate cash bail for low-level offences and avoid mass incarceration.

“It emboldens criminals to keep committing crimes, because there are no repercussions for it,” Russell said.

Does he have any chance at winning?

Short of a miracle, Sliwa has no real path to victory. The latest Quinnipiac University poll found he had the support of 14 percent of likely voters. That paled in comparison to Mamdani’s 43 percent and Cuomo’s 33 percent support.

That’s why Cuomo has pushed so hard for him to exit the race. The former governor made repeated overtures to conservative voters, saying a vote for Sliwa is, in essence, a vote for Mamdani.

Cuomo has even left the door open to giving Sliwa a role in his administration if he were to drop out.

As of yet, the appeals have been to no avail. It also remains unclear how many of Sliwa’s staunchest supporters would be willing to cross party lines.

“If Sliwa leaves the race, I wouldn’t vote for either [Cuomo or Mamdani],” Russell told Al Jazeera.

Dutch chipmaker Nexperia has suspended wafer shipments to its Chinese assembly plant in Dongguan, a move that could intensify the semiconductor supply crunch already rattling automakers worldwide.

The suspension, revealed in a company letter dated October 29 and signed by interim CEO Stefan Tilger, followed the Chinese unit’s failure to meet contractual payment terms. It comes amid escalating tensions after the Dutch government seized control of Nexperia from its Chinese owner, Wingtech Technology, in late September, citing national security and governance concerns.

Why It Matters

The halt threatens to disrupt automotive and electronics supply chains at a critical time. Around 70% of Nexperia’s chips produced in the Netherlands are packaged in China, meaning the freeze could ripple through global manufacturing networks.

The dispute also underscores the deepening fractures in global tech supply chains, where national security concerns and trade controls increasingly shape corporate decisions. With the U.S., China, and Europe tightening technology restrictions, Nexperia’s situation reflects the mounting geopolitical tug-of-war over semiconductor control.

Nexperia (Netherlands): Seeking to maintain operations while asserting independence from Chinese influence.

Wingtech Technology (China): The former owner now sidelined after Dutch government intervention.

Dutch Government: Exercising sovereignty over critical tech assets amid Western security coordination.

Chinese Ministry of Commerce: Blocking Nexperia’s chip exports from China in retaliation.

Global Automakers: Companies like Stellantis and Nissan are monitoring potential production halts as chip prices soar.

What’s Next

Nexperia says it is developing alternative supply routes to support its global customers but has not disclosed details. The Dongguan facility remains operational, though limited by the wafer cutoff.

Analysts expect further trade retaliation from Beijing, potentially deepening the rift between European and Chinese semiconductor ecosystems. Automakers warn of possible shortages by mid-November if shipments do not resume.

Implications

This episode highlights how state intervention in technology firms is reshaping global supply chains. The Dutch government’s takeover framed as a national security move signals Europe’s growing alignment with U.S. export controls targeting Chinese tech entities.

In the short term, the halt could spike chip prices and strain automotive production, particularly in Asia and Europe. Long term, it may accelerate a strategic decoupling between Western and Chinese semiconductor manufacturing bases.

Politically, this marks a test of Europe’s resolve to protect critical tech sectors even at the cost of trade friction with Beijing.

With information from an exclusive Reuters report.

JOJO Siwa stripped to a bikini as she shared an emotional post with boyfriend Chris Hughes.

The Celebrity Big Brother star, 22, shared a series of snaps with the former Love Island finalist on Instagram, as the couple enjoyed a beach getaway together.

She hinted at “hard moments” in the caption, while heaping praise on her boyfriend Chris, describing herself as a “lucky girl”.

In the caption, she wrote: “In the last week I’ve realized more than ever that I’m a lucky girl who is in love with the one who I laugh the loudest with, have the most fun with, and enjoy time the most with.

“Beautiful days are here and they are gorgeous [Chris Hughes] thank you for this beautiful week, and for every day since we’ve met continuing to make me smile through even the hard moments.

“I Love you beyond [heart emoji]”.

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The CBB star can be seen sharing an embrace with Chris in one sun-soaked beach snap as the pair both don swimwear.

The couple are also seen enjoying a dance in a sweet video shared within the post, which included a series of highlights from their trip.

The post has already clocked over 100,000 likes, with fans quick to show support for the couple in the comments section.

One wrote: “You both deserved a love like this. I’m so happy you both chose to do big brother”.

Another added: “We are all so happy you’ve found love with Chris. You deserve someone who sees your heart the way he does. You’ve been through so much, and it’s beautiful to see you finally loved the way you deserve.”

JoJo and Chris – who are already discussing marriage plans – first became incredibly close during their 19-day stint in ITV‘s spy house back in April.

Scenes on the CBB show saw them share a forehead kiss as well as a peck on the shoulder.

Viewers were continually left confused over Chris’ seemingly “flirty” behaviour towards JoJo – who had a partner, Kath Ebbs, at the time – before the pair secretly held hands in the bedroom.

Back in the real world, when JoJo had split with Kath, the duo then left fans convinced they were sending secret “love” signals during a TikTok video.

JoJo then clarified her relationship status with Chris in a joint interview on ITV daytime show This Morning in April, during which she said they shared a “soulmate friendship.”

But last week, Chris revealed that just weeks after the interview, during their Mexico trip in May, they made things official.

He spoke openly about their connection on the Question The Default podcast with Harry Corin, in which he shared “nothing was rushed or forced, it just happened.”

He then confirmed it was when he flew to Mexico to surprise her at a festival she was playing at which happened few weeks after CBB – with her family there – where they became an item.

Chris said they “rekindled and met up in Mexico” and said: “I flew out to surprise her, which was nice.

“I spent a few days with her and her family in Orlando as well before flying home and that’s where it all started.”

Later in the chat, he said: “I went to Mexico and met up with her which is where the whole feelings developed and things changed.

“Which was lovely and no secret to anybody.

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“But it was genuinely lovely and nothing was rushed or forced it just happened.”

He then told how they were managing long-distance at the moment yet would find a solution at some point.

GYEONGJU, South Korea, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) — President Lee Jae Myung and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation during summit talks Friday.

The two sides met on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, with Lee expressing hopes for a higher level of cooperative bilateral ties through Marcos’ visit to South Korea.

“For a long time, South Korea and the Philippines have supported and cooperated with one another as friendly nations,” Lee said, noting Manila’s deployment of troops in support of South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Marcos said the two countries have reached multiple milestones in ties, citing the signing of a bilateral free trade deal, and cooperation in the defense and security sectors.

Lee also thanked Marcos for the creation of a “Korean help desk” within the Philippine police to deal with cases involving South Korean nationals, according to presidential spokesperson Kim Nam-jun.

The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in areas such as defense, shipbuilding and infrastructure, as well as for regional coordination to stamp out transnational crime, including scam centers, he said.

Lee also said he would make efforts for “peaceful co-existence” on the Korean Peninsula, while Marcos pledged his country will cooperate in such efforts as the upcoming chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year, Kim added.

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The United Kingdom’s King Charles III has stripped his brother, Andrew, of the title of prince and ordered him to leave his lavish residence near Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday. Observers say the Palace is finally taking decisive action over Andrew’s connections to the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations that the two men sexually abused Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager.

Andrew, 65, the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth and younger brother of King Charles, has faced growing scrutiny over his personal conduct and ties to Epstein. Earlier this month, he was pressured into giving up his title of Duke of York.

“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” Andrew said at the time. He also said he “vigorously den[ies] the accusations” against him.

Buckingham Palace hopes to be seen as taking a decisive step, drawing a line after years of compromising scandals. In 2022, Andrew was removed from numerous royal duties due to his connections to Epstein.

How did Andrew’s ties to Epstein come to light?

Born in 1960, Andrew was once one of the more popular members of the British royal family, known for his military service as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War in 1982.

For years, however, Andrew’s personal antics have generated embarrassing headlines, testing the patience of the royal family. In 2024, for instance, court documents revealed that a close adviser on Andrew’s business affairs was a suspected Chinese spy.

But it was Andrew’s persistent ties to Jeffrey Epstein that ultimately forced King Charles’s hand and led to Andrew stepping down from his royal duties in 2019. Epstein died by suicide in a US prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

In 2021, Virginia Giuffre – one of the most prominent accusers of Epstein – filed a lawsuit alleging rape and sexual abuse against then-Prince Andrew. She claimed she had been forced to have sex with him on multiple occasions when she was 17, a minor under US law.

Prince Andrew has always denied Giuffre’s allegations, even insisting that a now-infamous photograph that appeared to show them together had been doctored. But in 2022, he agreed to settle the lawsuit, costing him as much as $16m.

Virginia Giuffre died by suicide in April this year. She was 41 years old.

Earlier this month, British newspapers reported that Andrew had emailed Epstein in February 2011 – more than two months after the prince told the BBC he had severed all ties with his former associate.

The email was sent at a time of heightened media coverage of the Epstein scandal, with Andrew telling Epstein they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it”.

These disclosures ultimately prompted Buckingham Palace’s response on Thursday.

What has Buckingham Palace said?

In a statement released on Thursday night, Buckingham Palace said the King’s brother is now to be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

He will no longer be styled “Prince” or “His Royal Highness (HRH)” and he has lost his dukedom, earldom, barony, military ranks and royal patronages.

It also announced that he is to be evicted from his residence, the sprawling Royal Lodge that was once home to the Queen Mother, near Windsor Castle, west of London.

“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation,” the palace statement said.

“These censures are deemed necessary… Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse,” it added.

A palace source said the decision was taken by King Charles, but that he had the support of the wider family, including heir-to-the-throne Prince William, in a bid to limit reputational risks to the monarchy.

Elsewhere, culture secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC’s Question Time programme that the king’s latest decision was a “truly brave, important, and correct step”, sending a “powerful message” to survivors of sexual abuse.

Why has Andrew been evicted from Royal Lodge?

In recent weeks, the British press has been rife with speculation about Andrew’s finances after The Times newspaper reported on October 21 that he had not paid rent on his 30-room mansion – known as Royal Lodge – for two decades.

It was revealed that he had a lease on the property stipulating a “peppercorn rent”: In return for carrying out renovations and maintaining the mansion, Andrew was paying a rent of “one peppercorn” each year.

In a rare political intervention, a British parliamentary committee on Wednesday questioned whether Andrew should still be living in the house, which is owned by the monarch and located 5km (3 miles) south of Windsor Castle.

On October 28, the BBC also revealed that Prince Andrew had hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein’s associate, later jailed for sex trafficking – and Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced film producer convicted of rape, at Royal Lodge.

The three visited Andrew’s home in 2006 to celebrate his daughter’s 18th birthday, just two months after a United States arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein over the sexual assault of a minor.

Where will Andrew live now?

It is understood that Andrew will move to a property on the private Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, which will be privately funded by his brother, the king.

The wider Sandringham Estate covers approximately 8,100 hectares (20,000 acres) with 240 hectares (600 acres) of gardens, and the Palace has not stipulated which property he will stay in.

It is also understood that Andrew’s move to Sandringham will take place “as soon as practicable”.

His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson – who still lives at Royal Lodge with him – will also move out of Royal Lodge and make her own living arrangements.

Have other royals in the UK been stripped of their titles in the past?

The stripping of Prince Andrew’s royal titles by King Charles III is unusual in modern British history.

Other royals have relinquished titles voluntarily – such as Princess Diana giving up HRH following her divorce from King Charles – and King Edward VIII, who abdicated from the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American woman who had been divorced twice.

Others have lost their privileges for political reasons – such as Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, for siding with Germany in World War I – but there has not been a case of a reigning monarch or immediate family being stripped of their status for scandal-related reasons.

In that sense, Andrew’s case is the most serious demotion of a senior British royal in recent memory.