Dutchman Gian van Veen shocked world number one Luke Humphries to win his first PDC title at the European Championship in Dortmund.
The 23-year-old beat countryman and four-time champion Michael van Gerwen 11-9 in the semi-finals before holding his nerve to come through a tense match with Humphries 11-10.
“I said it to my girlfriend when I walked on stage, whenever I win my first TV title I wouldn’t cry – and here I am crying,” Van Veen told ITV Sport.
“I will never forget this moment or even this crowd. It is phenomenal to win my first major in Germany.
“I said to Luke after the game, when he hit the bull to go 10-10, that is why he is world number one. That’s how amazing person Luke is. It is definitely a night to never forget.”
Israeli restrictions on the entry of heavy machinery are crippling Gaza City’s efforts to clear debris and rebuild critical infrastructure, the city’s mayor says, as tens of thousands of tonnes of unexploded Israeli bombs threaten lives across the Gaza Strip.
In a Sunday news conference, Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj said Gaza City requires at least 250 heavy vehicles and 1,000 tonnes of cement to maintain water networks and construct wells.
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Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from az-Zawayda in Gaza, said only six trucks had entered the territory.
At least 9,000 Palestinians remain buried under the rubble. But the new equipment is being prioritised for recovering the remains of Israeli captives, rather than assisting Palestinians in locating their loved ones still trapped beneath rubble.
“Palestinians say they know there won’t be any developments in the ceasefire until the bodies of all the Israeli captives are returned,” Khoudary said.
Footage circulating on social media showed Red Cross vehicles arriving after meetings with Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, to guide them to the location of an Israeli captive in southern Rafah.
An Israeli government spokesperson said that to search for captives’ remains, the Red Cross and Egyptian teams have been permitted beyond the ceasefire’s “yellow line”, which allows Israel to retain control over 58 percent of the besieged enclave.
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, said Israel spent two weeks insisting that Hamas knew the locations of all the captives’ bodies.
“Two weeks into that, Israel has now allowed Egyptian teams and heavy machinery to enter the Gaza Strip to assist in the mammoth task of removing debris, of trying to get to the tunnels or underneath the homes or structures that the captives were held in and killed in,” she said.
Odeh added that Hamas had been unable to access a tunnel for two weeks due to the damage caused by Israeli bombing. “That change of policy is coming without explanation from Israel,” she said, noting that the Red Cross and Hamas have also been allowed to help locate potential burial sites under the rubble.
Netanyahu: ‘We control Gaza’
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to reassert political authority at home, saying that Israel controls which foreign forces may operate in Gaza.
“We control our own security, and we have made clear to international forces that Israel will decide which forces are unacceptable to us – and that is how we act and will continue to act,” he said. “This is, of course, accepted by the United States, as its most senior representatives expressed in recent days.”
Odeh explained that Netanyahu’s statements are intended to reassure the far-right base in Israel, which thinks he’s no longer calling the shots.
Those currently overseeing the ceasefire do not appear to be Israeli soldiers or army leadership, she explained, with Washington “requesting that Israel notify it ahead of time of any attack that Israel might be planning to conduct inside Gaza”.
Odeh noted that Israel’s insistence on controlling which foreign actors operate in Gaza – combined with the limited access for reconstruction – underscores a broader strategy to maintain political support at home.
Unexploded bombs a threat
Reconstruction in Gaza faces further obstacles from unexploded ordnance. Nicholas Torbet, Middle East director at HALO Trust in the United Kingdom, said Gaza is “essentially one giant city” where every part has been struck by explosives.
“Some munitions are designed to linger, but what we’re concerned about in Gaza is ordnance that is expected to explode upon impact but hasn’t,” he told Al Jazeera.
Torbet said clearing explosives is slowing the reconstruction process. His teams plan to work directly within communities to safely remove bombs rather than marking off large areas indefinitely. “The best way to dispose of a bomb is to use a small amount of explosives to blow it up,” he explained.
Torbet added that the necessary equipment is relatively simple and can be transported in small vehicles or by hand, and progress is beginning to take place.
The scale of explosives dropped by Israel has left Gaza littered with deadly remnants.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence, told Al Jazeera that Israel dropped at least 200,000 tonnes of explosives on the territory, with roughly 70,000 tonnes failing to detonate.
Yahya Shorbasi, who was injured by an unexploded ordnance along with his six-year-old twin sister Nabila, lies on a bed at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, October 25, 2025 [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP]
Children have been particularly affected, often mistaking bombs for toys. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reported the case of seven-year-old Yahya Shorbasi and his sister Nabila, who were playing outside when they found what appeared to be a toy.
“They found a regular children’s toy – just an ordinary one. The girl was holding it. Then the boy took it and started tapping it with a coin. Suddenly, we heard the sound of an explosion. It went off in their hands,” their mother Latifa Shorbasi told Al Jazeera.
Yahya’s right arm had to be amputated, while Nabila remains in intensive care.
Dr Harriet, an emergency doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, described the situation as “a public health catastrophe waiting to unfold”. She said children are being injured by items that look harmless – toys, cans, or debris – but are actually live explosives.
United Nations Mine Action Service head Luke David Irving said 328 people have already been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance since October 2023.
Tens of thousands of tonnes of bombs, including landmines, mortar rounds, and large bombs capable of flattening concrete buildings, remain buried across Gaza. Basal said clearing the explosives could take years and require millions of dollars.
For Palestinians, the situation is a race against time. Al Jazeera’s Khoudary said civilians are pressing for faster progress: “They want reconstruction, they want freedom of movement, and they want to see and feel that the ceasefire is going to make it.”
Wives and children of suspected Islamic State group fighters are detained in tented camps
In the complex mosaic of the new Syria, the old battle against the group calling itself Islamic State (IS) continues in the Kurdish-controlled north-east. It’s a conflict that has slipped from the headlines – with bigger wars elsewhere.
But Kurdish counter-terrorism officials have told the BBC that IS cells in Syria are regrouping and increasing their attacks.
Walid Abdul-Basit Sheikh Mousa was obsessed with motorbikes and finally managed to buy one in January.
The 21-year-old only had a few weeks to enjoy it. He was killed in February fighting against IS in north-eastern Syria.
Walid was so keen to take on the extremists that he ran away from home, aged 15, to join the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They brought him back because he was a minor, but accepted him three years later.
Generations of his extended family gathered in the yard of their home in the city of Qamishli to tell us about his short life.
“I see him everywhere,” said his mother, Rojin Mohammed. “He left me with so many memories. He was very caring and affectionate.”
Walid was one of eight children, and the youngest of the boys. He could always get around his mum.
“When he wanted something, he would come and kiss me,” she recalls. “And say ‘can you give me money so I can buy cigarettes?'”
The young fighter was killed during days of battle near a strategic dam – his body found by his cousin who searched the front lines. Through tears, his mother calls for revenge against IS.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Walid was killed in February fighting against the Islamic State Group in north-eastern Syria
“They broke our hearts,” she says. “We buried so many of our young. May Daesh (IS) be wiped out completely,” she says. “I hope not one of them is left.”
Instead, the Islamic State Group is recruiting and reorganising – according to Kurdish officials, taking advantage of a security vacuum after the ousting of Syria’s long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad last December.
“There’s been a 10-fold increase in their attacks,” says Siyamend Ali, a spokesman for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – a Kurdish militia, which has been fighting IS for over a decade, and is the backbone of the SDF.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
“I see him everywhere,” says Walid’s mother, Rojin Mohammed
“They benefited from the chaos and got a lot of weapons from warehouses and depots (of the old regime).”
He says the militants have expanded their areas of operation and methods of attack. They have graduated from hit-and-run operations to attacking checkpoints and planting landmines.
His office walls are lined with photos of YPG members killed by IS.
For the US, the YPG militia is a valued ally in the fight against the extremists. For Turkey, it is a terrorist group.
In the past year, 30 YPG fighters have been killed in operations against IS, according to Mr Ali, and 95 IS militants have been captured.
Kurdish authorities have their hands – and jails – full with suspected IS fighters. Around 8,000 – from 48 countries including the UK, the US, Russia and Australia – have been held for years in a network of prisons in the north east.
Whatever their guilt – or innocence – they have not been tried or convicted.
The largest jail for IS suspects is al-Sina in the city of Al Hasakah – ringed by high walls, and watch towers.
Through a small hatch in a cell door, we get a glimpse of men who once brought terror to around a third of Syria and Iraq.
Detainees in brown uniforms – with shaven heads – sit silent and motionless on thin mattresses, on opposite sides of a cell. They appear thin, weak and vanquished, like the “caliphate” they proclaimed in 2014. Prison officials say these men were with IS until its last stand in the Syrian town of Baghouz in March 2019.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Al-Sina, located in the city of Hasaka, is the largest jail for IS suspects
Some detainees wear disposable masks to prevent the spread of infection. Tuberculosis is their companion in al-Sina, where they are being held indefinitely.
There’s no TV or radio, no internet or phone, and no knowledge that Assad was toppled by the former Islamist militant, Ahmed al-Sharaa. At least that’s what the prison authorities hope.
But IS is rebuilding itself behind bars, according to a prison commander who cannot be identified for security reasons. He says each wing of the prison has an emir, or leader, who issues fatwas – rulings on points of Islamic law.
“The leaders still have influence,” he said. “And give orders and Sharia lessons.”
One of the detainees, Hamza Parvez from London, agreed to speak to us with prison guards listening in.
The former trainee accountant admits becoming an IS fighter in early 2014 at the age of 21. It cost him his citizenship. When challenged about IS atrocities including beheadings, he says a lot of “unfortunate” things happened.
“A lot of stuff happened that I don’t agree with,” he said. “And there was some stuff that I did agree with. I wasn’t in charge. I was a normal soldier.”
He says his life is now at risk. “I’m on my deathbed… in a room full of tuberculosis,” he said. “At any moment I could die.”
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Hamza Parvez, from London, admits he became an IS fighter at 21
After years in jail, Parvez is pleading to be returned to the UK.
“Me and the rest of the British citizens who are here in the prison, we don’t wish any harm,” he said. “We did what we did, yes. We did come. We did join the Islamic State. It’s not something that we can hide.”
I ask how people can accept he is no longer a threat.
“They are going to have to take my word for it,” he says with a laugh.
“It’s something that I can’t convince people about. It’s a huge risk that they will have to take to bring us back. It’s true.”
Britain, like many countries, is in no hurry to do that.
So the Kurds are left holding the fighters and about 34,000 of their family members.
The wives and children are arbitrarily detained in sprawling desolate tented camps that amount to open-air prisons. Human rights groups say this is collective punishment – a war crime.
Roj camp sits on the edge of the Syrian desert – whipped by the wind, and scorched by the sun.
It’s a place Londoner Mehak Aslam is keen to escape. She comes to meet us in the manager’s office – a slight veiled figure, wearing a face mask and walking with a limp. She says she was beaten by Kurdish forces years ago and injured by a fragment of a bullet.
After agreeing to an interview, she speaks at length.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Kurdish troops patrol the area around the camps where IS detainees are held
Aslam says she came to Syria with her Bengali husband, Shahan Chaudhary, just “to bring aid”, and claims they made a living by “baking cakes”. He is now in al-Sina prison, and they have both been stripped of their citizenships.
The mother-of-four denies joining IS but admits bringing her children to its territory, where her eldest daughter was killed by an explosion.
“I lost her in Baghouz. It was an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] or a small bomb. She broke her leg, and she was pierced with shrapnel from her back. She died in my arms,” she says, in a low voice.
She told me her children had developed health problems in the camp, including her youngest, who is eight. But she admits turning down an offer for them to be returned to the UK. She says they didn’t want to go without her.
“Unfortunately, my children have pretty much grown up just in the camp,” she said. “They don’t know a world outside. Two of my children were born in Syria, they have never seen Britain, and going to family who again they don’t know, it would be very difficult. No mother should have to make the choice of being separated from her children.”
But I put it to her that she had made other choices like coming to the caliphate where IS was killing civilians, raping and enslaving Yazidi women, and throwing people from buildings.
“I wasn’t aware of the Yazidi thing at the time,” she said, “or that people were being thrown from buildings. We did not witness any of that. We knew they were very extreme.”
She said she was at risk inside the camp because it is known that she would like to go back to Britain.
“I have already been targeted as an apostate, and that’s in my community. My kids have had rocks thrown at them at school.”
I asked if she would like to see a return of an IS caliphate.
“Sometimes things are distorted,” she said. “I don’t’ believe what we saw was a true representation, Islamically speaking.”
After an hour-long interview, she returned to her tent, with no indication that she would ever leave the camp.
The camp manager, Hekmiya Ibrahim, says there are nine British families in Roj – among them 12 children. And, she adds, 75% of those in the camp still cling to the ideology of IS.
There are worse places than Roj.
The atmosphere is far more tense in al-Hol – a more radicalised camp where about 6,000 foreigners are being held.
We were given an armed escort to enter their section of the camp.
As we walked in – carefully – the sound of banging echoed through the area. Guards said it was a signal that outsiders had arrived and warned us we might be attacked.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
About 6,000 foreigners are being held in al-Hol camp
Veiled women – clad head to toe in black – soon gathered. One responded to my questions by running a finger across her neck – as if slitting a throat.
Several small children raised an index finger – a gesture traditionally associated with Muslim prayer but hijacked by IS. We kept our visit short.
The SDF patrol outside the camp and in the surrounding areas.
We joined them – bumping along desert tracks.
“Sleeper cells are everywhere,” said one of the commanders.
In recent months, they have been focused on trying to break boys out of the camp, “trying to free the cubs of the caliphate”, he added. Most attempts are prevented, but not all.
A new generation is being raised – inside the razor wire – inheriting the brutal legacy of the IS.
“We are worried about the children,” said Hekmiya Ibrahim back in Roj camp.
“We feel bad when we see them growing up in this swamp and embracing this ideology.”
Due to their early indoctrination, she believes they will be even more hardline than their fathers.
“They are the seeds for a new version of IS,” she said. “Even more powerful than the previous one.”
Additional reporting by Wietske Burema, Goktay Koraltan and Fahad Fattah
Editorial use only Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/Shutterstock (1414385c) Tony Adams and Noele Gordon ‘Crossroads’ TV Programme. – 1978Credit: Rex
BELOVED Brit soap actor Tony Adams who starred in Crossroads has died aged 84 with tributes pouring in.
The legend died at Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on Saturday, with his wife Christine by his side.
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Tony Adams, who starred in Crossroads, has died aged 84Credit: PATributes have poured in for the beloved Brit soap actorCredit: PA
Anthony Sawley Adams was born in Anglesey, Wales, in 1940 and later trained as an actor at the Italia Conti theatre school.
Following performances on the stage, he made his name as Dr Neville Bywaters in the 1970s soap General Hospital and appeared in the Dr Who series The Green Death.
In 1978, he took on the role of accountant Adam Chance in soap Crossroads – the role for which he became best known.
The series ended in 1988 after more than 4,500 episodes, with Adams staying until the end.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that he’s about to make good on a threat to revoke millions in federal funds for California because he says the state is illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens.
In an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” Duffy said California Gov. Gavin Newsom has refused to comply with U.S. Department of Transportation rules that require the state to stop issuing such licenses and review those already issued.
“So, one, I’m about to pull $160 million from California,” Duffy said. “And, as we pull more money, we also have the option of pulling California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses.”
Newsom’s press office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the matter Sunday, but California has defended its practices previously. When Duffy threatened to revoke funds last month, a spokesperson for the governor dismissed the attack and noted that commercial license holders from California have a significantly lower rate of crashes than the national average and the Texas average, which is the only state with more licensed commercial drivers.
Last month, the Transportation Department tightened commercial driver’s license requirements for noncitizens after three fatal crashes that officials said were caused by immigrant truck drivers. Only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible for CDLs under the new rules and states must verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. The licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner.
Duffy said last month that California should never have issued 25% of 145 licenses investigators reviewed. He cited four California licenses that remained valid after the driver’s work permit expired — sometimes years after. The state had 30 days to come up with a plan to comply or lose funding.
A nationwide commercial driver’s license audit began after officials say a driver in the country illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. The audit found licenses that were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.
Duffy said Sunday that California has unlawfully issued tens of thousands of these licenses to noncitizens.
“So you have 60,000 people on the roads who shouldn’t have licenses,” Duffy said. “They’re driving fuel tankers, they’re driving school buses, and we have seen some of the crashes on American roadways that come from these people who shouldn’t have these licenses.”
Duffy said earlier this month that he would withhold $40 million from California because it is the only state that is failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers. California defended its practices in a formal response to the Transportation Department, but federal officials were not satisfied.
The investigation launched after the Florida crash found what Duffy called significant failures in the way California is enforcing rules that took effect in June after one of President Trump’s executive orders. California had issued the driver a commercial license, but these English rules predate the crash.
SACRAMENTO — Lakers guard Luka Doncic will miss at least one week with a left finger sprain and a left lower leg contusion, the team announced Sunday before a road game at Sacramento.
The star guard suffered the finger injury early in Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It didn’t slow him down at all, though, as Doncic finished with 49 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists in a 128-110 Lakers victory. The 26-year-old is off to a blazing start as his 92 points in the first two games are the most in Lakers history to begin a season.
The Lakers announced Doncic will be reevaluated in about one week, but it will be a busy stretch without the five-time All-Star. Already without LeBron James as the 40-year-old deals with a sciatica injury, the Lakers have four games in six days this week. After Sacramento on Sunday, the Lakers (1-1) return to L.A. to face Portland on Monday and have road games at Minnesota and Memphis on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.
The Lakers will be down to just nine standard contract players Sunday as center Jaxson Hayes was also ruled out with left knee soreness. He will miss his second consecutive game. James and forwards Maxi Kleber (abdominal muscle strain) and Adou Theiro (knee) are also out.
Oct. 26 (UPI) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed Sunday that he is considering a bid for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.
Newsom, among President Donald Trump‘s most strident critics, said during an interview that aired on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” that he is likely to make his decision following the 2026 midterm elections.
Newsom’s current term expires in January 2027, and term limits prevent him from seeking another term as governor, which would clear the way for him to seek the presidential nomination.
“Fate will determine that,” Newsom continued, when asked about his plans to seek his party’s presidential nomination.
Newsom, 58, has made repeated trips to politically sensitive battleground states, including a visit in July to South Carolina, which is currently scheduled to hold the nation’s first 2028 presidential primary.
He met with party leaders and shook hands in local coffee shops, grass roots style, and even went behind the counter to serve espresso to customers, typical of would-be candidates measuring sentiment among likely voters even years before a key election.
“I happen to, and thank God, I’m in the right business,” he said during the interview when discussing his South Carolina trip. “I love people. I actually love people.”
Newsom said he is currently focused on promoting Proposition 50, a California ballot initiative that would allow Democrats in the state to temporarily redraw congressional district boundary lines, which would make them more favorable to his party.
The fate of the measure is scheduled to be decided in a special election this week.
Supporters have said the proposition is in response to efforts by states such as Texas, which has pushed to change district maps to be more favorable to GOP candidates, and increasing their odds of holding on to their slim majorities in the U.S. House.
Harris, a longtime politician whose ties run deep in progressive California politics, said in an interview with the BBC that she has more to offer.
“I am not done,” Harris said. “I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones.”
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was the Biden administration’s ambassador to Japan, reportedly is also considering a run for the Democratic nomination.
East Timor, Asia’s youngest nation, has become the 11th member of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN, fulfilling a vision set out by its current president nearly a half-century ago.
The country, also known as Timor-Leste, is among Asia’s poorest and hopes to see gains from integrating its fledgling economy. The accession follows a 14-year wait and represents a symbolic victory for President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, the heroes of its struggle for independence. ASEAN leaders formalized the joining at the opening of their annual summit in Kuala Lumpur.
Gusmao said it was a historic moment for his country, with a new beginning that would bring “immense opportunities” for trade and investment. East Timor was ruled for three centuries by Portugal, which abruptly pulled out of its colony in 1975, paving the way for annexation and an at-times bloody occupation by Indonesia before winning full independence in 2002.
CONAKRY, Guinea — It was the middle of the day when Omar Diaw, known by his artist name “Chimere” — French for chimera — approached a blank wall off the main thoroughfare in Guinea’s capital and started spray-painting.
“They know who I am,” he said confidently. Though it wasn’t clear who ”they” were, civilians and police didn’t bat an eye as Diaw’s fellow artists unloaded dozens of paint cans onto the roadside in Conakry.
Graffiti has thrived for years in Diaw’s native Senegal, where the modern urban street art first took off in West Africa. But when he moved to Guinea in 2018 to explore a new place, he said such art was nearly nonexistent.
“It was thought that graffiti was vandalism,” he said.
To win over the public, Diaw took a gentle approach, using graffiti for public awareness campaigns. One of his first was to raise awareness about COVID-19 preventive measures.
“We had to seduce the population,” he said.
The port city of Conakry faces rapid urbanization. Diaw’s graffiti has become an undeniable part of its crowded, concrete-heavy landscape.
His larger-than-life images of famous Guinean musicians and African independence leaders now dwarf the overloaded trucks that drive by. Drying laundry hung over the portrait of the West African resistance fighter Samory Toure.
The tag of Diaw’s graffiti collective, Guinea Ghetto Graff, is on murals all over the city.
Graffiti as it’s known today began in the 1960s and ’70s in the United States. It arrived in West Africa via Dakar, Senegal, in 1988, when the region’s first graffiti artist, Amadou Lamine Ngom, started painting on the city’s walls.
Known by his artist name, “Docta,” Ngom and a group of fellow artists were commissioned the following year to paint murals for an awareness campaign aimed at cleaning up Dakar’s streets.
Ngom, 51, said that at the beginning, aside from such campaigns, he did graffiti mostly at night. He later changed his approach.
“I decided to do it in broad daylight,” he said. “So as not to copy what’s happening in the United States, Europe or elsewhere. To create graffiti that resembles the African reality, taking into account our reality, our values.”
Ngom, who later mentored the teenage Diaw, said communities grew to respect the public artwork since it reflected their lives and experiences.
With the public’s backing, “the authorities didn’t have a choice,” Ngom said.
These days, graffiti has grown more assertive in Senegal, becoming part of the political messaging around antigovernment protests. In Guinea, Diaw’s graffiti has addressed issues such as migration.
Diaw said Conakry’s governor supports much of his work and has given him carte blanche to do it wherever he wants.
As his latest work beside the thoroughfare took shape, passersby began to stop and admire the portrait of Guinea’s military leader, Gen. Mamadi Doumbouya, who took power in a 2021 coup.
A 22-year-old driver, Ousmane Sylla, said he was familiar with Diaw’s gigantic paintings near Conakry’s airport.
“It reminds us of old Guinean musicians. It reminds us of history,” he said. “Graffiti is good for Africa, it’s good for this country, it’s good for everyone. I like it, and it changed the face of our city.”
The next step might be bringing in a wider range of artists.
“I would really like to see more women become a part of this, because they say that [graffiti] is for men,” said Mama Aissata Camara, a rare female artist on Guinea’s graffiti scene.
Undoubtedly, Sunderland – who won 2-1 at Chelsea on Saturday – have been the biggest surprise this term. Minutes away from a Championship play-off final defeat in May, they will end October fourth in the top flight.
With 17 points from nine matches, the Black Cats have equalled their best Premier League start, matching their tally from 1999-00.
Only five newly promoted sides have earned more points than Sunderland in the same number of matches. All five, including Sunderland themselves in 2000, managed to survive relegation.
“It’s an unbelievable start and one that’s been well earned,” former Watford captain Troy Deeney told Final Score.
“If you said that a couple of months ago, Sunderland fans would tell you, you’re crazy.”
Ex-Manchester United and England midfielder Michael Carrick added on BBC Radio 5 Live: “Anyone who is honest enough will say that they never expected Sunderland to start this well, so full credit to them.
“The amount of points they have accumulated already has given them an unbelievable start and that’s something they will want to build on.”
Ismail Omar Guelleh could seek re-election in 2026 after parliament votes to remove age restriction for presidential candidates.
Published On 26 Oct 202526 Oct 2025
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Djibouti’s parliament has removed the constitutional age ceiling for presidential candidates, opening the door for Ismail Omar Guelleh to seek a sixth term despite being 77 years old.
All 65 lawmakers present voted on Sunday to eliminate the age restriction of 75 years, a move that would allow the veteran leader to contest elections scheduled for April 2026. The decision requires either presidential approval followed by a second parliamentary vote on November 2, or a national referendum.
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Guelleh, known widely as IOG, has governed the Horn of Africa nation since 1999, when he succeeded Hassan Gouled Aptidon, the country’s founding president.
The constitutional barrier was introduced by Guelleh himself in 2010 alongside reforms that scrapped presidential term limits, but reduced each term from six to five years.
National Assembly Speaker Dileita Mohamed Dileita defended the change as essential for maintaining stability in a turbulent region. He said public support exceeded 80 percent for the measure, though Al Jazeera is not able to verify this claim.
Earlier this year, in an interview with the Jeune Afrique magazine, Guelleh gave an important indication that he had no plans to relinquish power. “All I can tell you is that I love my country too much to embark on an irresponsible adventure and be the cause of divisions,” he said.
Rights advocates condemned the move as a step toward permanent rule. “This revision prepares a presidency for life,” said Omar Ali Ewado, who heads the Djiboutian League for Human Rights, calling instead for a peaceful democratic transition.
Daher Ahmed Farah, a leader in the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development, told Al Jazeera that international partners should reconsider their priorities. “The country is in a strategic position and hosts many bases, but these interests lie with the Djiboutian people, not with a single man,” he said.
Guelleh won his fifth term in 2021 with more than 98 percent of votes after opposition groups boycotted the election. At the time, the United States welcomed the result but encouraged the government “to further strengthen its democratic institutions and processes in line with recommendations from the observer missions”.
Guelleh is East Africa’s third-longest-serving leader behind Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, in power for nearly four decades, and Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki, with a tenure reaching 27 years.
Despite its small population of one million, Djibouti wields outsized geopolitical influence. The country hosts the only permanent US military base in Africa, alongside installations operated by France, China, Japan and Italy. Its position overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait makes it vital for global shipping between Asia and Europe.
That strategic value has kept Djibouti stable while neighbouring states face mounting crises, including Sudan’s civil war and Somalia’s fragmentation.
Hundreds of supporters of opposition presidential candidate Issa Tchiroma accuse President Paul Biya’s government of seeking to rig the vote.
Published On 26 Oct 202526 Oct 2025
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At least two people have been killed by gunfire in Cameroon, as protesters rallied a day before the announcement of presidential election results, the opposition campaign has said.
Hundreds of supporters of opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma barricaded roads and burned tyres in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala on Sunday. Police fired tear gas and water cannon to break up the crowds. A police car was also burned.
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The protesters say Tchiroma beat veteran leader Paul Biya, 92, in the October 12 polls and have accused authorities of preparing to rig the election.
Protests have flared in several cities, including the capital Yaounde, Tchiroma’s hometown Garoua, as well as Maroua, Meiganga, Bafang, Bertoua, Kousseri, Yagoua, Kaele, and Bafoussam.
The demonstrations came after partial results reported by local media showed that Biya was on course to win an eighth term in office.
During the counting process, according to the figures, Tchiroma was declared the winner. But during the national count, the electoral commission announced that Biya would be the winner, which Tchiroma disputes.
He claims that he has won the elections and that he has evidence to prove it, which led to a call for national demonstrations to demand the truth about the ballot boxes.
Burning barricades are seen in Garoua during a demonstration by supporters of the political opposition on October 21, 2025 ahead of the release of the results of the presidential vote [AFP]
‘We want Tchiroma’
“We want Tchiroma, we want Tchiroma!” the protesters chanted in Douala’s New Bell neighbourhood. They blocked roads with debris and threw rocks and other projectiles at security forces.
Reuters news agency reporters saw police detain at least four protesters on Sunday.
Cameroon’s government has rejected opposition accusations of irregularities and urged people to wait for the election result, due on Monday.
Earlier on Sunday, Tchiroma’s campaign manager said authorities had detained about 30 politicians and activists who had supported his candidacy, heightening tensions.
Among those he said were detained were Anicet Ekane, leader of the MANIDEM party, and Djeukam Tchameni, a prominent figure in the Union for Change movement.
Cameroon’s Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji said on Saturday that arrests had been made in connection with what he described as an “insurrectional movement,” though he did not say who – or how many – had been detained.
Biya is the world’s oldest serving ruler and has been in power in Cameroon since 1982. Another seven-year term could keep him in power until he is nearly 100.
Tchiroma, a former minister and one-time Biya ally, has said that he won and that he will not accept any other result.
Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly will be leaving Strictly Come Dancing at the end of the current series, with new hosts set to take over next year
La Voix could be a candidate for the job(Image: BBC)
Strictly Come Dancing fans have been begging La Voix to be the next new host after Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly announced they were leaving. The iconic duo announced last week that they wouldn’t be presenting the next series.
Since then, several names have been suggested who may replace the current hosts. Fans of the show have said they would love current contestant La Voix to take on the job.
La Voix made her own plea during Saturday’s show where she threw her own hat in the ring as a potential candidate. The Drag Race UK star took the chance to ask Claudia live on air for her job.
La Voix was waiting in the Clauditorium ahead of her performance as she asked the host: “Claudia, while I’ve got you, do you know the address when you send your CV to the BBC? Just in case any new jobs are coming up. I’m just asking for a friend.”
Claudia laughed as she grabbed La Voix’s hand and led her over to the camera to take a turn, saying: “Give it a go, babe, let’s do it now.”
La Voix then had a go at reading the autocue, simply saying: “Tess.” She then handed over to the main studio as the entire room burst into laughter.
Fans took to social media to say that they think the star would be a great candidate to present Strictly. One said: “La Voix is pure entertainment. Everything she does/says is gold.”
While a second added: “La Voix has the personality & humour to be one of the new Strictly presenters!” As a third wrote: “She has the sarcastic wit of Bruce Forsyth, love it, make a great replacement for Claudia.”
“La Voix is one of the all-time greatest contestants this show has seen in terms of pure entertainment value. She never wastes a single second of screen time; she’s always ready with a joke to be cracked,” another said.
Tess and Claudia opened the show on Saturday night, where they spoke about their recent announcement. Tess began: “Just before we get started tonight, Claud and I announced this week that this will be our last series of Strictly Come Dancing.”
As the audience clapped, Claudia continued: “We want to thank you for your beautiful messages. We’ve got another eight weeks on this incredible show and a Strictly champion to crown.”
Tess concluded: “And we cannot wait to spend the rest of the series with you, with our amazing couples and these four [the judges].”
The pair announced that they were leaving in a video posted to their Instagram page last Thursday. It’s been previously reported that the duo had made a pact that they would always leave together.
Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt connects for a double against the Cincinnati Reds during Game 2 of the National League Wildcard Series at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 1.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Neither Alex Call nor Ben Rortvedt had appeared in a playoff game until this season. And though neither Dodger reserve got off the bench in the first two games of the World Series, they’re a lot closer to the action then they expected to be before the July trades that brought them to Los Angeles.
“It’s really cool. I’m just soaking it all in,” said Call, who came over from the Washington Nationals at the deadline.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” added Rortvedt, who was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays, then spent most of the summer in triple A before being called up when Will Smith got hurt in early September. “I’ve been taking it more day by day, so it hasn’t kind of struck me as much as people think it would. Definitely when this is done I’m really going to reflect and kind of realize how crazy it has been to kind of be on this team and be where we are now.”
Call, 31, who also played with the Cleveland Guardians in a five-year big-league career, appeared in one game in each of the Dodgers’ first three playoff series, going three for four with two walks, getting hit by a pitch and scoring a run.
“It’s kind of crazy because it feels like it should have been harder,” Call said of reaching the World Series. “With the Nats, it’s like we were going to have to grind our way all the way to the top. And then you get to come over the Dodgers and you’re the favorites, World Series champs. You’ve got probably the best roster ever assembled, with amazing stars up and down the lineup, and then they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we want Alex Call on our team.’
“That’s kind of an amazing compliment.”
Rortvedt, 28, who also played with the Yankees and Minnesota Twins in four seasons, started the first four games of the postseason and hit .429.
“If I pinch myself, it’s kind of like I’m not sure [I’m here,]” he said. “I just try to be as prepared as I can, understand the magnitude of things, and just try to be prepared and try to slow everything down and do my best.”
1 of 2 | Hurricane Melissa was upgraded to a Category 4 storm as it nears Caribbean islands, many of which have issues storm warnings and watches. Photo courtesy of NOAA
Oct. 24 (UPI) — Melissa was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane as it made its way toward Jamaica, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.
It is expected to strengthen to a Category 5 storm, causing catastrophic conditions for Caribbean nations.
The hurricane became a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph while moving west at 5 mph and positioned about 110 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 285 miles south-southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba, the National Hurricane Center reported in its 2 p.m. EDT update.
The storm had become a hurricane at 9 a.m. EDT on Saturday and was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane by Saturday night.
It continues to gain strength and could cause life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides in parts of Southern Hispaniola and Jamaica into early next week.
Currently, a hurricane warning is in effect for all of Jamaica.
Hurricane watch advisories are also in effect for the southwestern peninsula of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-Au-Prince and for the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, and Holguin.
“Melissa’s slow movement over the mountainous islands greatly increases the risk of catastrophic flash flooding and deadly mudslides,” Duffus said. “This can quickly escalate into a humanitarian crisis, where a large number of people are in need of basic supplies such as food, safe drinking water, housing and medical care.”
A hurricane warning is in effect in Jamaica, while a hurricane watch is in effect for the southwestern tip of Haiti and the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.
A turn to the north and northeast is forecast on Monday and Tuesday.
“This remains a very serious situation, in terms of catastrophic rainfall, wind, and storm surge hazards for Jamaica, and preparations should be rushed to completion in the area currently under a Hurricane Warning,” NHC forecaster Jack Beven said in a discussion.
On the forecast track, Melissa is expected to move near or over Jamaica through into early next week, and it could be near or over eastern Cuba by the middle of next week and then head northwest in the Atlantic farther from the United States.
“It must be noted that there is very little practical difference in the overall impacts of a Category 4 or 5 landfall, and Melissa is expected to be at least that intensity when it moves over Jamaica,” Beven wrote in a discussion.
“Melissa should weaken as it interacts with Jamaica and Cuba, although it is still forecast to be a major hurricane when it nears Cuba. A faster weakening should occur after passing Cuba when the cyclone encounters strong shear over the southwestern Atlantic,” he wrote.
This would be the strongest direct landfall for the island since tropical cyclone record-keeping has been kept in the Atlantic Basin.
Tropical-force winds stretch outward to 115 mph from the center.
Rainfall of 15 to 30 inches through Wednesday is forecast for portions of southern Hispaniola, which includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, with a local maximum of 40 inches, the NHC said.
Eastern Cuba is expected to receive rainfall of 6 to 12 inches, with local amounts up to 18 inches into Wednesday.
“Life-threatening storm surge is becoming more likely along the south coast of Jamaica later in the weekend or early next week,” the NHC said.
Peak storm surge heights could reach 9 to 13 feet above ground level, near and to the east of where the center of Melissa makes landfall and be accompanied by large and destructive waves.
There also is a potential for significant storm surge along the Cuban coast next week.
Melissa is the 13th named storm of the season, and it’s the first in the Caribbean.
This season has seen few storms, which have warmed the Caribbean Sea, and the warm water is potential fuel for stronger and more dangerous storms.
IRIS Law had her assistants running across New York to find her favourite treats ahead of the Victoria’s Secret show, it’s been reported.
The 25-year-old daughter of actorJude LawandfilmproducerSadie Frost, made her debut as an Angel during the return of the world famous runway show in October.
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Iris Law made her Victoria’s Secret runway debut this yearCredit: GettyThe model reportedly had a set of ‘diva’ demands before the showCredit: Getty
This year’s Victoria’s Secret show was full of famous faces including fellow nepo babies, Bella and Gigi Hadid, and Lila Moss.
But it was reported that Iris had plenty of demands as she prepared to walk the runway.
Iris is said to have sent her team of assistants looking for cookies from a particular bakery and then smoothies from another place in New York, according to Daily Mail.
The Victoria’s Secret catwalk show made a stunning return earlier this month and was full of A-list models including,Alessandra Ambrosio, Jasmine Tookes, Angel Reese, Barbie Ferreira, Ashley Graham, Irina Shayk and Emily Ratajkowski.
The whirlwind romance between Trent and Iris hit the rocks last year.
Before then pictures of Trent and Iris in the Caribbean in July showed them looking like a perfect couple after meeting on a photoshoot with Guess Jeans only five months prior.
Her dad, Jude has seven different children with four different women.
His other kids are named Raff, 27, Rudy, 21, Sophia, 14 and Ada, eight.
Jude and his current wife Phillipa Coan, whom he married in 2019, have reportedly had two children, one in 2020 and one in 2023.
Iris is the daughter of Jude Law and Sadie FrostCredit: Getty – Contributor
In a sign of California’s rising status as a major hub of Democratic politics, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday he’s considering a run for president in 2028 — just a day after former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made the same pronouncement.
Newsom, a Democrat who has won national prominence this year pitching himself a leader of the resistance to President Trump, admitted for the first time publicly that he is seriously weighing a 2028 presidential run.
In an interview with “CBS News Sunday Morning,” Newsom was asked whether he would give “serious thought” after the 2026 midterms to a White House bid.
“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom replied. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not — I can’t do that.”
Harris said this weekend in an interview with the BBC that she expects a woman will be president in the coming year. “Possibly,” she said, it could be her.
“I am not done,” she said. “I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones.”
It’s still more than three years until the November 2028 election, and entirely possible only one or neither of the two California politicians could throw their hat in the race.
But the early willingness of Newsom and Harris to publicly consider a White House bid shows that the Golden State is still a major hub of Democratic politics. It also sets up a potential 2028 political showdown between two of California’s weightiest political figureheads.
For years, Newsom has denied presidential ambitions. But since Trump defeated Harris in the November 2024 election, the California governor has emerged as a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s agenda.
Under Newsom’s leadership, California has filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump — most noticeably against the Trump administration’ deployment of National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. The governor has also become more aggressive on social media, taking to X to taunt and troll Trump.
Still, Newsom, whose term ends in January 2027 and who cannot run again for governor because of term limits, cautioned that he is not rushing into a 2028 presidential campaign.
“I have no idea,” Newsom said Sunday of whether he will actually decide to run.
After Trump defeated Harris in November, Harris was viewed as a possible candidate for California governor. But in July she announced that, after “serious thought” she would not run for the top California office.
“For now, my leadership — and public service — will not be in elected office,” Harris said in a statement. “I look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly, and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans.”
Newsom’s interest in the White House raises the stakes for passing Proposition 50, a California ballot measure he has pushed — in response to a similar initiative in Texas — that would allow state Democrats to temporarily change the boundaries of U.S. House maps so that they are more favorable to Democrats. California voters will vote on Prop 50 in a special election next week.
Newsom has cast his effort as a response to Trump’s push to redraw maps in Republican-controlled states to make them more favorable to the GOP.
“I think it’s about our democracy,” Newsom said in the CBS interview. “It’s about the future of this republic. I think it’s about, you know, what the founding fathers lived and died for, this notion of the rule of law, and not the rule of Don.”
If Newsom is successful and Proposition 50 passes, the move could potentially help future Democratic candidates for the White House.
But either way, both Newsom and Harris would face high hurdles in battleground states if they ran for president.
Just being a Californian is a liability, some argue, at a time when Republicans depict the state as a bastion of woke ideas, high taxes and crime.
While California boasts the world’s fifth-largest economy and is home to the massive tech powerhouse of Silicon Valley and the cultural epicenter of Hollywood, it has struggled in recent years with high housing costs and massive income inequality. In September, a study found California tied with Louisiana for the nation’s highest poverty rate.
Newsom, 58, a former San Francisco mayor who was born to a wealthy and well-connected San Francisco family, suggested in the CBS interview that he had already surmounted significant obstacles. Early on, Newsom struggled in school and suffered from dyslexia.
“The idea that a guy who got 960 on his SAT, that still struggles to read scripts, that was always in the back of the classroom, the idea that you would even throw that out is, in and of itself, extraordinary,” Newsom said. “Who the hell knows? I’m looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that’s the question for the American people.”
Harris, 61, who served as a U.S. senator and California attorney general before she became vice president in 2020 and then the Democratic Party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential election, received criticism last year after losing to Trump by more than 2.3 million votes, about 1.5% of the popular vote. Some Democrats accused her of being an elite, out of touch candidate who failed to connect with voters in battleground states who have struggled economically in recent years.
“I wrote the book for many reasons, but primarily to remind us how unprecedented that election was,” Harris said.
“Think about it. A sitting president of the United States is running for reelection and three and a half months before the election decides not to run, and then a sitting vice president takes up the mantle to run against a former president of the United States who has been running for 10 years, with 107 days to go.”
Newsom has already raised eyebrows this year by traveling to critical battleground election states.
After Newsom spoke in South Carolina, Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and renowned Democratic kingmaker who rescued former President Biden’s 2020 campaign, told The Times that Newsom would be “a hell of a candidate.”
“He’s demonstrated that over and over again,” Clyburn said, stopping short of endorsing him. “I feel good about his chances.”
But other leading South Carolina Democrats voiced doubts that Newsom could win over working class and swing voters in battleground states.
Richard Harpootlian, a South Carolina attorney, former state senator and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, called Newsom “a handsome man with great hair.”
“But the party is searching for a left-of-moderate candidate who can articulate blue-collar hopes and desires,” Harpootlian told The Times.
“If he had a track record of solving huge problems like homelessness, or the social safety net, he’d be a more palatable candidate,” he added. “I just think he’s going to have a tough time explaining why there’s so many failures in California.”
Great Britain’s Anna Morris leaps from sixth to second after the final sprint for the line to take silver in the women’s points race at the World Track Cycling Championships.
Fighting comes as Taliban submits proposal at Pakistan-Afghanistan talks in Turkiye, while Islamabad warns of ‘open war’ if deal fails.
Published On 26 Oct 202526 Oct 2025
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Fresh clashes near the border with Afghanistan have killed at least five Pakistani soldiers and 25 fighters, Pakistan’s army says, even as the two countries hold peace talks in Istanbul.
The Pakistani military said armed men attempted to cross from Afghanistan into Kurram and North Waziristan on Friday and Saturday, accusing the Taliban authorities of failing to act against armed groups operating from Afghan territory.
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It said on Sunday that the attempted infiltrations raised questions over Kabul’s commitment to tackling “terrorism emanating from its soil”.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government has not commented on the latest clashes, but has repeatedly rejected accusations of harbouring armed fighters and instead accuses Pakistan of violating Afghan sovereignty with air strikes.
Delegations from both countries arrived in Istanbul, Turkiye on Saturday for talks aimed at preventing a return to full-scale conflict. The meeting comes days after Qatar and Turkiye brokered a ceasefire in Doha to halt the most serious border fighting since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
The violence earlier this month killed dozens and wounded hundreds.
‘Open war’
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the ceasefire remains intact and that Kabul appears interested in peace, but warned that failure in Istanbul would leave Islamabad with “open war” as an option.
Pakistan’s military described those involved in the weekend infiltrations as members of what it calls “Fitna al-Khwarij”, a term it uses for ideologically motivated armed groups allegedly backed by foreign sponsors.
United States President Donald Trump also weighed in on Sunday, saying he would “solve the Afghanistan-Pakistan crisis very quickly”, telling reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia that he had been briefed on the ongoing talks.
Separately, Taliban-controlled broadcaster RTA said on Sunday that Kabul’s delegation in Turkiye had submitted a proposal after more than 15 hours of discussions, calling for Pakistan to end cross-border strikes and block any “anti-Afghan group” from using its territory.
The Afghan side also signalled openness to a four-party monitoring mechanism to supervise the ceasefire and investigate violations.
Afghanistan’s delegation is led by Deputy Interior Minister Haji Najib. Pakistan has not publicly disclosed its representatives.
Analysts expect the core of the talks to revolve around intelligence-sharing, allowing Islamabad to hand over coordinates of suspected Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters for the Taliban to take direct action, instead of Pakistan launching its own strikes.
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