attack

Days after a Ukrainian strike on a Russian dam designed to impede Russian logistics, videos and photographs are emerging showing flooded dugouts and vehicles stuck in the mud in the northern Kharkiv region. Ukrainian military officials and a local Russian media outlet claim the attack on the Belgorod Reservoir Dam on the Siverskyi Donets River is working as intended, helping to slow down Russian advances near the embattled town of Vovchansk.

You can see a satellite view of the results of the attack in the following video.

“Enemy logistics are becoming significantly more complicated,” the Ukrainian 16th Army Corps stated on Telegram in reference to the results of water streaming out of the dam. “The leaves have also fallen. So the units that managed to cross the Siverskyi Donets found themselves practically cut off from the main forces.”

“We are waiting for reinforcements for the exchange fund,” the corps added, using a reference to prisoners of war.

A Russian outlet offered a similar take.

“Light military equipment sunk in mud on one of the roads in the Vovchansk direction,” the local Belgorod Pepel Telegram channel posited. “Water from the Belgorod reservoir has reached the positions of the Russian army and washed out the roads, greatly complicating logistics and the combat capability of the Russian Armed Forces in the Vovchansk direction.”

“Our dugout was flooded after the dam was blown up,” a Russian soldier is heard to complain on one of the videos.

Water from the Belgorod Reservoir reached Russian army positions and washed away roads, significantly complicating logistics and combat capabilities for Russian forces in the Volchansk direction. pic.twitter.com/dCQp6juea7

— Slava 🇺🇦 (@Heroiam_Slava) October 28, 2025

Ukraine’s Commander of Unmanned Systems Forces, Col. Robert Brovdi, said the dam was hit by drones on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the regional governor said it was attacked on Friday as well.

“As a result of the strike by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there is damage to the dam of the Belgorod reservoir,” Vyacheslav Gladkov stated on Telegram on Saturday. “We understand that the enemy may try to strike again and destroy the dam. If this happens, there will be a threat of flooding of the river floodplain from the Kharkiv region side and several streets of our settlements, where about 1,000 residents live.”

Though the dam is located a little more than eight miles north of the border, the flood waters that resulted from the attack have swollen the Siverskyi Donets River, which bisects Vovchansk, located about four miles south of the border.

The bombed-out town has become a focal point of the fighting in northern Ukraine. It was liberated in September 2022 but a Russian counteroffensive managed to recapture a portion of the town in May 2024.

Both the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries say the fighting remains fierce in the area, with Moscow claiming to have inflicted severe damage during these battles.

Before the dam attack, the Russians had made gains in the area thanks to the summer’s heat, according to the Ukrainian 16th Army Corps.

“The enemy tried to fully take advantage of the window of opportunity – after the lack of precipitation and the hellish summer, the rivers Siverskyi Donets and Vovcha have dried up, which simplified logistics for the opponent,” the corps stated on Telegram. “Plus, they managed to accumulate reserves and there are still enough leaves on the trees – all this combined led to a sharp increase in activity in the Vovchansk direction.”

The Russians “managed to achieve local successes, but it came at the cost of heavy losses,” the corps claimed. “Some units almost completely lost combat readiness, for example, the 1st battalion of the 82nd Marine Regiment was almost wiped out, with only the command left in the unit, so it had to be withdrawn to the rear for replenishment.”

“As of today, the situation is no longer in favor of the Russians,” the 16th Corps suggested.

Still, Ukrainian forces are not yet able to take full advantage of any logistical impediments imposed on Russian forces by the dam bust, stated one noted Ukrainian journalist.

“Comrades located at various sections of the Vovchansk direction responded, saying that assault actions and drone operations have not decreased over these 2 days,” Sergey Bratchuk wrote on Telegram. “This is despite the weather conditions, which noticeably complicate the work of UAV crews.”

“Due to (so far) constant tension, they do not allow the so-called ‘window of opportunity’ to be used for improving their own logistics, personnel shifts at positions, and strengthening defensive lines,” he added.

The lack of Ukrainian progress may change as water continues to flow from the dam, Bratchuk suggested.

“Well, let’s see how they behave in a few days when all the main access routes are flooded, the crossings are flooded, and the fortifications are destroyed,” he explained. “Without provisions, ammo, fuel, generators, etc. – offensive capabilities will somewhat quiet down. Infantry are not demanding people; you can even drop them a package and they will hold out for a long time, but supplying pilot positions is a completely different matter.”

The Belgorod attack is the most recent, but certainly not the largest strike on a dam. In March 2023, Ukraine claimed that the Russians intentionally blew up the Nova Kakovka dam on the Dnipro River, intending to impede Ukrainian logistics. While the extent of that objective is unclear, the attack caused major flooding and created a massive ecological disaster in the region.

Just how much the attack on the Belgorod Reservoir dam will hurt Russia remains to be seen. However, the strike is the latest example of how both sides are using water to try and stop the other.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), supported by local militias and Ugandan troops, repelled an early morning attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on the mining hub of Manguredjipa in North Kivu province on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025.

The assault, which began around 5:30 a.m., targeted the town located 100 kilometres west of Butembo in Lubero territory. Locals told HumAngle that the ADF rebels were first sighted at the Ngoma Institute in DRC, with sources saying the assailants approached from a farm in Mangingi, a peripheral quarter of Manguredjipa.

A priest from the St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Manguredjipa noted that the coalition forces were present “in large numbers” and quickly pursued the attackers. “Until 7 a.m. this morning, gunfire was still being heard in Manguredjipa,” the priest revealed.

A local of the Brazza area corroborated the swift action, saying, “They were not lucky to reach the centre of the town, because they arrived near a position of the Wazalendu, and the FARDC were on alert.” 

Clashes were ongoing in the area where the rebels had invaded when HumAngle spoke to locals.

The incursion triggered a rapid displacement of residents from the southeastern area of Manguredjipa, including Brazza, Mangingi, and Matonge, who sought refuge in the town’s centre. Military analysts suggest the ADF aimed for the city’s commercial heart and a nearby health facility. While official casualty figures remain unknown, residents have reported one civilian fatality. A young man was hit by a bullet while fleeing his Mangingi quarter towards the centre of the town.

The ADF offensive on Manguredjipa follows clashes just the day before. On Monday, October 27, 2025, a coalition of FARDC, Wazalendo, and UPDF forces engaged ADF rebels spotted in N’tembe, a village ten kilometres from Manguredjipa.

One resident, Nelson, believes the Monday fighting was a prelude to the attack on the town. “We heard gunfire throughout the day on Monday, and the group of assailants targeted the position of our forces to get to Manguredjipa,” he said, adding that the daylight timing of the successful defence likely averted a greater tragedy. “God helping, they arrived in the town by daybreak. If they had arrived at night, we should have counted several deaths, especially as heavy rain fell in the town during the night.”

Israeli drone attack close to the southern city of Khan Younis kills at least 2 people despite ceasefire.

UN spokesman says incident involved a drone dropping a grenade near a patrol, and a tank opening fire on peacekeepers.

The United Nations and France have condemned an Israeli attack that hit UN peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday that the previous day’s attack on UNIFIL troops, which he said involved an Israeli drone dropping a grenade in the vicinity of a patrol, as well as a tank opening fire on peacekeepers near the border town of Kfar Kila, was “very, very dangerous”.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) works with the Lebanese army to enforce a ceasefire struck last year between Israel and the Lebanese armed groupd Hezbollah. Israel has violated the truce on a near-daily basis.

France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs also condemned “the Israeli fire that targeted a UNIFIL detachment” and noted that the incidents followed similar attacks on October 1, 2 and 11.

Dujarric said: “It’s not the first time that we feel we’ve been targeted in different ways by the [Israeli army, including] pointing lasers or warning shots. He said his colleagues at UNIFIL were in touch with the Israeli military to “protest vehemently” against the attacks.

On Sunday, UNIFIL reported an Israeli drone flying over its patrol in an “aggressive manner”, saying its peacekeepers “applied necessary defensive countermeasures to neutralise the drone”. No injuries or damage were reported.

Israel still occupies five positions in southern Lebanon and has been launching near-daily attacks in defiance of the ceasefire. At least two brothers were killed in a strike on the village of al-Bayyad in the Tyre district on Monday.

The Lebanese official news agency ANI said that the two were killed in an attack on a sawmill in al-Bayyad.

Three people were killed on Sunday in raids on southern and eastern Lebanon.

The military says that it is targeting members of Hezbollah and its infrastructure, but Lebanese leaders have accused it of attempting to obstruct reconstruction by striking machinery like diggers and bulldozers.

The Israeli army said that its Sunday attacks targeted an arms dealer working for Hezbollah and another man who was “aiding the group’s attempts to rebuild its capacity for military action”.

Hezbollah, severely weakened by Israel’s attacks, has said it is ready to defend itself. “The possibility of war exists but is uncertain; it depends on their calculations,” said Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem in reference to Israel.

The United States government has been pressuring Lebanon to have the group surrender its arms to the country’s army.

US Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus arrived late on Monday in Beirut, where she is scheduled to meet Lebanese leaders.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis stepped up his attacks on the ethical standards of the Reagan Administration on Saturday, offering his harshest criticism yet of the President’s role in the Pentagon procurement scandal.

Asked if he blamed President Reagan and Vice President George Bush, the presumed Republican nominee, personally for the corruption, Dukakis responded: “There’s an old Greek saying . . . The fish rots from the head first. It starts at the top.”

Dukakis said that misconduct and scandal have become “almost an epidemic” under Reagan. “It’s the guy at the top who has to be held accountable,” he added.

“If an Administration comes to Washington with a contempt for public service,” the Massachusetts governor said, “we shouldn’t be surprised if people it attracts to the government share that contempt.”

Dukakis’ acid comments at a press conference here capped a seven-state campaign swing in the industrial Midwest and Deep South targeted at Reagan Democrats–or “Bubba Democrats” as some here in Kentucky call themselves–the 18% of the electorate whose defection helped Reagan win landslide elections in 1980 and 1984.

The strategy holds the risk of alienating supporters of the still-popular President. Until now, Dukakis usually has avoided direct criticism of Reagan, aiming his sharpest barbs at outgoing Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III.

In his three-day campaign swing, his second since the convention, Dukakis repeatedly mocked Bush’s promise to put an ethics office in the White House. “In the Dukakis White House, the ethics office will be in the Oval Office, not somewhere down the hall,” he said.

He also cited testimony last week by David Packard, former head of the Reagan Commission on Defense Management and a former deputy secretary of defense, before the Senate Armed Services Committee investigating the Pentagon scandal.

Packard “testified that this Administration has helped create an environment in which, and I quote, ‘honest and efficient military acquisition is impossible,’ ” Dukakis told more than 5,000 people at an outdoor rally in this steamy Ohio River city.

“My friends, in a Dukakis Administration we’re not going to surrender our national security to greed and corruption,” he added. “We’re not going to use our defense dollars to line the pockets of Washington consultants. We’re going to pay for the tanks and equipment and training the men and women of our armed forces need and deserve.”

Dukakis has called for sharp spending cuts for Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defense system. He opposes further deployment of the MX missile, as well as further spending on the mobile Midgetman missile system. He also would forgo two proposed Navy aircraft carrier task forces.

Dukakis focused mostly on economic development and education in his campaign visits to Secaucus, N.J.; Cleveland; Flint, Mich.; Racine, Wis.; Springfield, Ill.; Louisville, and Raleigh, N.C.

Despite sweltering weather at every stop, Dukakis encountered sizable crowds and palpable enthusiasm almost everywhere. His rally here, for example, was a sharp contrast with the visit in 1984 by then-Democratic nominee Walter F. Mondale.

Only a few hundred lonely voters showed up then. Even state Democratic leaders “mostly ducked it,” recalled Mayor Jerry E. Abramson. On election day, Kentucky, a state with twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans, gave 69% of its votes to Reagan.

This time, every top elected Democrat in the state crowded the platform in sweat-soaked shirts, waving flags and grinning for the cameras. State Chairman Jerry Lundergan happily held the candidate’s coat. A plane circled overhead, towing a banner: “Our Choice: President Dukakis!”

“He’s what America needs,” said Dale Robinson, 25, a law clerk who clutched two Instamatic cameras and a tiny U.S. flag. “He stands for what America is all about.”

“I think we need a change,” agreed Mike Johnson, 34, a high school teacher. “And I think he’ll do a better job of handling the deficit than Bush.”

Later, at an indoor state fairground hall in Raleigh, aides tried to re-create the excitement of Dukakis’ victory speech in Atlanta.

First came the now-familiar thumping beat of Neil Diamond’s “America” to warm up the crowd. Then in came the candidate, marching like a prize fighter under TV lights as the crowd roared to its feet. A singer belted out the National Anthem, the crowd faced a giant flag to chant the Pledge of Allegiance and Dukakis used a TelePrompTer to speak of an America that “cares for each other and, yes, loves one another.”

“He’s inspiring us to be Americans again,” said Janice Brady, who held her 9-year-old daughter, Amanda. “Just like Reagan.”

Prosecutors said the two young defendants planned a ‘sustained campaign of terrorism and sabotage’ backed by Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries.

A British judge has handed lengthy jail sentences to the two young ringleaders of a group who carried out arson attacks in the United Kingdom on behalf of the Russian state-funded private military firm, the Wagner Group.

Prosecutors said on Friday that Dylan Earl, 21, and Jake Reeves, 24, planned “a sustained campaign of terrorism and sabotage on UK soil” with the backing of Russia’s notorious Wagner mercenary group, which has been accused of war crimes in zones of conflict around the world, including murder, torture and rape.

Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb handed Earl a 17-year prison sentence, with a further six years on extended licence, for his “leading role” in planning several attacks, including one in March last year in which a London warehouse storing humanitarian aid and Starlink satellite equipment destined for Ukraine was set on fire.

During the trial, prosecutors said the 21-year-old had discussed with his Wagner handler plans to kidnap the cofounder of finance app Revolut and to torch a warehouse in the Czech Republic.

A police search of Earl’s phone uncovered videos of the east London warehouse fire being started, while he was also found to be in contact with Wagner members on the messaging app Telegram.

17 years in prison.

CCTV, phone data and forensic evidence helped convict Dylan Earl, one of five men involved in a Russian-ordered arson attack on a warehouse in Leyton.

The blaze caused around £1 million of damage, including to aid bound for Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/m96hNx6fO2

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) October 24, 2025

Fellow defendant Reeves, 24, was handed 12 years in prison, with an additional year on extended licence, for his role in recruiting other men to take part in the Wagner-backed attacks.

The pair are the first people to be convicted under the UK’s new National Security Act, introduced in 2023 to readapt anti-espionage legislation to counter modern-day threats from foreign powers.

Russian-backed ‘hostile agents’

Earl and Reeves “acted willingly as hostile agents on behalf of the Russian state”, Dominic Murphy, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said in a statement.

“This case is a clear example of an organisation linked to the Russian state using ‘proxies’ – in this case British men – to carry out very serious criminal activity in this country on their behalf,” Murphy said.

“In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of counter-state-threat investigations and the use of ‘proxies’ is a new tactic favoured by hostile states such as Russia,” he added.

In July, three other British men were found guilty of aggravated arson for their role in the warehouse attack in east London, which caused one million pounds ($1.3m) in damage and put dozens of firefighters’ lives at risk.

Nii Mensah, 23, was sentenced to nine years in prison; Jakeem Rose, 23, was jailed for eight years and 10 months; while Ugnius Asmena, 21, was handed seven years.

Ashton Evans, 20, was also jailed for nine years for failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to another arson plot targeting two central London businesses owned by a Russian dissident.

British authorities allege that Russia is conducting an increasingly bold espionage and sabotage campaign in the UK, with the head of the MI5 security service, Ken McCallum, saying Moscow is “committed to causing havoc and destruction”.

In a separate case this week, the Metropolitan Police arrested three men from west and central London, also suspected of spying for Russia.

The details of their alleged crimes have not been made public, but they have also been charged under the 2023 National Security Act “on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service”.

NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, pledged Friday to further embrace his Muslim identity in response to growing attacks by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his surrogates that he characterized as “racist and baseless.”

Encircled by faith leaders outside a Bronx mosque, Mamdani spoke in emotional terms about the “indignities” long faced by the city’s Muslim population, choking back tears as he described his aunt’s decision not to ride the subway after the Sept. 11 attacks because she didn’t feel safe being seen in a religious head covering.

He recounted how, when he first entered politics, an uncle gently suggested he keep his faith to himself.

“These are lessons that so many Muslim New Yorkers have been taught,” Mamdani said. “And over these last few days, these lessons have become the closing messages of Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and Eric Adams.”

At a news conference later Friday, Cuomo accused Mamdani of “playing the victim” for political purposes and denied that Islamophobia existed on a wide scale in New York.

Throughout the race, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has been criticized by Cuomo and others over his criticism of Israel’s government, which he had accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

But the tone of those attacks have amped up in recent days, drawing allegations from some Democrats that Cuomo’s campaign is leaning into Islamophobia in the final stretch of the campaign.

Appearing on a conservative radio station Thursday, Cuomo appeared to laugh along at host Sid Rosenberg’s suggestion that Mamdani would “be cheering” another 9/11 attack. “That’s another problem,” Cuomo replied.

A Cuomo social media account posted, then removed, a video depicting Mamdani eating rice with his hands and describing his supporters as criminals. A campaign spokesperson said the video was posted in error.

At an event endorsing the former governor, Mayor Eric Adams invoked the possibility of terrorist attacks in New York City, seeming to suggest — without explanation — they would be more likely under a Mamdani administration.

“New York can’t be Europe. I don’t know what is wrong with people,” Adams said, standing alongside Cuomo. “You see what’s playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism.”

At a debate earlier this week, Sliwa, the Republican nominee, falsely smeared Mamdani as a supporter of “global jihad.”

Asked about Rosenberg’s comments, Cuomo said he “didn’t take the remarks seriously at the time.”

“Of course I think it’s an offensive comment. But it did not come out of my mouth,” he added.

Messages left with Adams’ and Sliwa’s campaign were not immediately returned.

In his speech Friday, Mamdani said he was aiming his remarks not at political opponents but at his fellow Muslim New Yorkers.

“The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker,” he said. “And yet for too long we have been told to ask for less than that, and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive.”

“No more,” he said.

To that end, Mamdani said he would further embrace his Muslim identity, a decision he said he consciously avoided at the start of his campaign.

“I thought that if I behaved well enough, or bit my tongue enough in the face of racist, baseless attacks, all while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith,” Mamdani said. “I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.”

He continued: “I will not change who I am, how I eat, for the faith that I’m proud to call my own. But there is one thing that I will change. I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.”

Mamdani, who won the primary in stunning fashion, has faced skepticism from some in the Democratic establishment, particularly over his criticism of Israel. On Friday, Mamdani earned the endorsement of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

Cuomo told reporters that Mamdani’s criticism of Israel had made Jewish people afraid to leave their homes.

He also rejected Mamdani’s claim that Muslim New Yorkers have been made to feel uncomfortable in their own city.

“Don’t tell me New Yorkers are Islamophobic. They’re not,” Cuomo said.

“What he is doing is the oldest, dirtiest political trick in the book: divide people,” Cuomo said.

Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.

A drug dealer who organised a Russian-ordered arson attack on a warehouse providing aid to Ukraine has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Dylan Earl, 21, admitted a National Security Act offence over the attack on industrial units in Leyton, east London, on 20 March 2024.

He was jailed alongside five other men for their part in the plot.

An investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command found Earl, from Leicestershire, was working under the instruction of Russian mercenary Wagner Group, who are proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist organisation. The case is the first to be brought under the National Security Act 2023.

One of U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command’s new OA-1K Skyraider II light attack aircraft crashed today, not far from Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma, where the type is based as part of a partnership between the 492nd and 137th Special Operations Wings. Both crew members onboard — a contractor and an active-duty service member — were not injured in the incident, thankfully.

Images of the Skyraider II sitting damaged in a field began circulating on social media this afternoon.

The Oklahoma Air National Guard says that the aircraft was out on a training mission when the incident occurred and that the circumstances are currently under investigation.

The OA-1K is brand new to the USAF’s inventory, with the type fulfilling what is something of the final culmination of a long string of aborted requirements for a light attack aircraft specially configured for low-intensity missions, such as counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations. A synopsis of the OA-1K from a previous TWZ article on its official naming can be read below:

The two-seat OA-1K can carry up to 6,000 pounds of munitions and other stores, including precision-guided missiles and bombs and podded sensor systems, on up to eight underwing pylons. L3Harris has previously said the aircraft can fly out to an area up to 200 miles away and loiter there for up to six hours with a typical combat load. They also have a “robust suite of radios and datalinks providing multiple means for line-of-sight (LOS) and beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) communications,” according to the company.

AFSOC currently plans to acquire 75 Skyraider IIs, with the first example to be delivered this spring. The turboprop-powered OA-1K, a militarized derivative of the popular Air Tractor AT-802 crop duster, is a tail-dragging design like the much larger piston-engined Skyraider. The Skyraider II is set to be the first tail-dragging tactical combat aircraft anywhere in U.S. military inventory in decades.”

You can also check out our exclusive tour of the aircraft in the video below:

It’s quite possible the aircraft’s crop-duster roots helped keep the airframe and its crew intact when it came down in the field, as it’s built to operate from rough fields even in its suped-up military configuration.

We will update this post with any new information that becomes available in the next 24 hours about the mishap.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Shots were fired outside Serbia’s parliament in Belgrade, injuring a supporter of President Aleksandar Vucic, who called the incident as a “terrorist attack”. Police say the 70-year-old suspect acted alone after setting a tent ablaze near a pro-government encampment amid year-long anti-Vucic protests.

Tuesday’s protest comes nearly two years after violent anti-immigration riots broke out in central Dublin.

At least 1,000 protesters have clashed with police in southwest Dublin, throwing bottles and launching fireworks at authorities during anti-immigration demonstrations sparked by allegations of an attack on a young girl.

Protesters came out in droves after a report that a 26-year-old man had sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl on the grounds of the Citywest Hotel, which houses asylum applicants in Saggart, southwest of the Irish capital.

The unnamed man, who appeared in court on Tuesday, was charged in connection with the sexual assault.

Local media reported that the man, who asked for a Romanian interpreter in court, was an asylum seeker. Police have not confirmed his ethnicity.

The young girl was reportedly under the care of the state at the time of the incident. Tusla, Ireland’s child and family agency, said the girl “absconded” during a trip to the city centre and was reported missing.

The protests, held near the grounds of the hotel on Tuesday, turned violent, with anti-immigrant protesters launching fireworks at police, carrying signs that read “Irish lives matter”, and chanting, “Get them out!”

A police van was set on fire as officers charged at protesters, using pepper spray to push them away from the hotel complex, the news agency AFP reported.

“The weaponising of a crime by people who wish to sow dissent in our society is not unexpected,” Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said in response to the protests. “This is unacceptable and will result in a forceful response.”

Earlier in the day, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the events were “extremely serious and very, very grave”.

Tuesday’s protests come nearly two years after riots broke out in central Dublin in November 2023, after three children were injured in a knife attack outside a school. At the time, police identified the suspect as a man in his 50s from Algeria.

A far-right mob, comprised of at least 100 people, took to the streets of Dublin in the aftermath of the stabbing, torching vehicles and attacking riot police. Some were armed with metal bars and had their faces covered.

Police said that more than 400 officers, including many in riot gear, were deployed to contain the unrest, which they said was “caused by a small group of thugs”. At least thirty-four people were arrested following the rampage.

While Ireland is unique in that it has no far-right members of Parliament, Ireland and the United Kingdom have seen rising anti-immigration sentiment in recent years. Anti-immigration protests across Northern Ireland in June escalated into clashes with police.

Those protests began in Ballymena, a town of about 31,000 people, located 40km (25 miles) northwest of the city of Belfast, when two Romanian 14-year-old boys were arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

During that unrest, hundreds of masked rioters attacked police and set buildings and cars on fire.

The populist government has blamed the 2024 attack on ‘hatred’ spread by opposition and critical media.

A Slovak court has convicted the pensioner who shot Prime Minister Robert Fico last year of a “terror attack” and sentenced him to 21 years in prison.

The Specialised Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica convicted and sentenced 72-year-old Juraj Cintula on Tuesday, saying he had acted “with a motivation to stop a proper functioning of the government” in a “particularly serious” crime.

Cintula, a poet from Levice in western Slovakia, shot Fico four times at close range on May 15, 2024 as the premier left a government meeting in central Slovakia.

He later claimed he was driven by “moral despair”. Fico was left seriously wounded but returned to work two months later.

The shooting and subsequent trial have shaken the small NATO-member country.

Now serving his fourth term as prime minister, Fico has repeatedly accused the liberal opposition and media of fuelling the assassination attempt, without presenting evidence.

Prosecutors originally charged Cintula with premeditated murder, but they later reclassified the shooting as a “terror attack”, citing his political motivation.

Critics have said that since the shooting, the populist Fico has become increasingly divisive, accelerating his alignment of Slovakia’s foreign policy with Russia, increasing criticism of the European Union, and implementing authoritarian and hardline conservative policy.

‘Most likely appeal’

“It was worth it,” local media quoted Cintula as shouting as he left court earlier this month after giving his closing trial statement.

After the shooting, Cintula had told police he wanted to protest against steps taken by Fico’s government, including the halting of military aid to war-ravaged Ukraine, according to a leaked video.

He claimed he had sought to hurt, but not kill, the prime minister.

In his final trial statement, a visibly emotional Cintula told the court he had been overcome with “moral despair”, accusing the prime minister of being “drunk with power” and making “irrational decisions that damage this country”.

He called his defence “a manifesto … for all those who feel that the arrogance of power, corruption and lies has no place in the country where our children will grow up”.

“The premier … embodied years of accumulated frustration and despair,” Cintula said.

Cintula’s lawyer, Namir Alyasry, told reporters after the hearing that he would “most likely appeal” the verdict.

The prime minister was not present at the trial and did not immediately comment on the verdict.

He previously said he forgave the attacker, whom he described as merely a “messenger of evil and political hatred” developed by the “politically unsuccessful and frustrated opposition”.

Since his return to office in 2023, Fico’s government has launched a crackdown on nonprofit organisations, cultural institutions and some media outlets it deems “hostile”, prompting mass protests.

Fico has also angered the opposition by calling for an end to Slovakia’s support for Ukraine, criticising EU sanctions targeting Russia and saying he would not allow Ukraine to join NATO.

Last month, the Slovak parliament approved a constitutional amendment to limit the rights of same-sex couples as part of a sweeping change that also states that national law takes precedence over EU law.

US leader says suspected drug traffickers to be sent to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

President Donald Trump says two surviving “narcoterrorists” from a semi-submersible vessel destroyed by the US military in the Caribbean will be sent to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.

He said that US intelligence has confirmed the vessel was carrying fentanyl and other narcotics.

The vessel was targeted on Thursday in what Trump described as a strike aimed at disrupting a major drug trafficking route.

Two crew members were killed, he said, while two others survived and were airlifted by US forces in a helicopter rescue operation to a nearby US Navy warship.

The US military held the survivors on board at least until Friday evening.

The press office for Ecuador’s government said it was not aware of the plans for repatriation. There was no immediate comment from Colombian authorities.

At least six vessels, most of them speedboats, have been targeted by US strikes in the Caribbean since September, with Venezuela alleged to be the origin of some of them.

Washington says its campaign is dealing a decisive blow to drug trafficking, but it has provided no evidence that the people killed were drug smugglers.

With Trump’s confirmation of the death toll on his Truth Social platform, that means US military actions against vessels in the region have killed at least 29 people.

The president has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. He is relying on the same legal authority used by the administration of former President George W Bush when it declared a war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the US. This includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and use lethal force to take out their leadership. Trump is also treating the suspected traffickers as if they were enemy soldiers in a traditional war.

Previous similar strikes have raised concerns from Democratic lawmakers and legal experts who argue that such operations may exceed accepted wartime authority and risk violating international law.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said the latest targeted vessel had been “built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs”.

US military buildup

The mission comes amid a sharp US military buildup across the Caribbean, involving guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear-powered submarine and about 6,500 troops. The escalation has fuelled accusations that Washington is inching towards direct confrontation with Venezuela.

On Wednesday, Trump confirmed that he had authorised the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela, intensifying fears in Caracas that the US is attempting to topple President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro has repeatedly denied involvement in drug trafficking and accused Washington of fabricating a narco-terrorism narrative as a pretext for trying to change the government. He condemned the recent maritime strikes as “a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law”.

Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, has formally requested the UN Security Council to issue a determination that the US strikes are illegal and to reaffirm Venezuela’s sovereign rights.

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he has authorised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.

He added that his administration was also mulling land-based military operations inside Venezuela, as tensions between Washington and Caracas soar over multiple deadly US strikes on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks.

On Wednesday, Trump held a news conference with some of his top law enforcement officials, where he faced questions about an earlier news report in The New York Times about the CIA authorisation. One reporter asked directly, “Why did you authorise the CIA to go into Venezuela?”

“I authorised for two reasons, really,” Trump replied. “Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America.”

“The other thing,” he continued, was Venezuela’s role in drug-trafficking. He then appeared to imply that the US would take actions on foreign soil to prevent the flow of narcotics and other drugs.

“We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela,” Trump said. “A lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea.  So you get to see that. But we’re going to stop them by land also.”

Trump’s remarks mark the latest escalation in his campaign against Venezuela, whose leader, Nicolas Maduro, has long been a target for the US president, stretching back to Trump’s first term in office.

Already, both leaders have bolstered their military forces along the Caribbean Sea in a show of potential force.

The Venezuelan government hit back at Trump’s latest comments and the authorised CIA operations, accusing the US of violating international law and the UN Charter.

“The purpose of US actions is to create legitimacy for an operation to change the regime in Venezuela, with the ultimate goal of taking control of all the country’s resources,” the Maduro government said in a statement.

Earlier, at the news conference, reporters sought to confront Trump over whether he was trying to enforce regime change in Caracas.

“Does the CIA have authority to take out Maduro?” one journalist asked at the White House on Wednesday.

“Oh, I don’t want to answer a question like that. That’s a ridiculous question for me to be given,” Trump said, demurring. “Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?”

He then offered an addendum: “But I think Venezuela’s feeling heat.”

Claiming wartime powers

Trump’s responses, at times meandering, touched on his oft-repeated claims about Venezuela.

Since taking office for a second term, Trump has sought to assume wartime powers – using laws like the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – by alleging that Venezuela had masterminded an “invasion” of migrants and criminal groups onto US soil.

He has offered little proof for his assertions, though, and his statements have been undercut by the assessments of his own intelligence community.

In May, for example, a declassified US report revealed that intelligence officials had found no evidence directly linking Maduro to criminal groups like Tren de Aragua, as Trump has alleged.

Still, on Wednesday, Trump revisited the baseless claim that Venezuela under Maduro had sent prisoners and people with mental health conditions to destabilise the US.

“Many countries have done it, but not like Venezuela.  They were down and dirty,” Trump said.

The authorisation of CIA operations inside Venezuela is the latest indication that Trump has been signing secret proclamations to lay the groundwork for lethal action overseas, despite insisting in public that he seeks peace globally.

In August, for instance, anonymous sources told the US media that Trump had also signed an order allowing the US military to take action against drug-trafficking cartels and other Latin American criminal networks.

And in October, it emerged that Trump had sent a memo to the US Congress asserting that the country was in a “non-international armed conflict” with the cartels, whom he termed “unlawful combatants”.

Many such groups, including Tren de Aragua, have also been added to the US’s list of “foreign terrorist organisations”, though experts point out that the label alone does not provide a legal basis for military action.

Strikes in the Caribbean Sea

Nevertheless, the US under Trump has taken a series of escalatory military actions, including by conducting multiple missile strikes on small vessels off the Venezuelan coast.

At least five known air strikes have been conducted on boats since September 2, killing 27 people.

The most recent attack was announced on Tuesday in a social media post: A video Trump shared showed a boat floating in the water, before a missile set it alight. Six people were reportedly killed in that bombing.

Many legal experts and former military officials have said that the strikes appear to be a clear violation of international law. Drug traffickers have not traditionally met the definition of armed combatants in a war. And the US government has so far not presented any public evidence to back its claims that the boats were indeed carrying narcotics headed for America.

But Trump has justified the strikes by saying they will save American lives lost to drug addiction.

He has maintained the people on board the targeted boats were “narco-terrorists” headed to the US.

On Wednesday, he again brushed aside a question about the lack of evidence. He also defended himself against concerns that the bombings amount to extrajudicial killings.

“When they’re loaded up with drugs, they’re fair game,” Trump told reporters, adding there was “fentanyl dust all over the boat after those bombs go off”.

He added, “We know we have much information about each boat that goes. Deep, strong information.”

Framing the bombing campaign in the Caribbean as a success, Trump then explained his administration might start to pivot its strategy.

“ We’ve almost totally stopped it by sea. Now, we’ll stop it by land,” he said of the alleged drug trafficking. He joked that even fishermen had decided to stay off the waters.

“ We are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control.”

A FOOTBALLER has been arrested on suspicion of killing an opponent more than a year after the brutal brawl.

Luis Torres was killed following an alleged attack by Moisés Pulido on 9 September 2024.

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The incident happened during a seven-a-side amateur football match between Torres’ Viper 3.0 and Pulido’s Deportivo Esmeralda on a synthetic pitch in Guadalajara, north west of Mexico City, Mexico.

Torres, 16, is said to have been charging through the midfield in the second half when he laid the ball off before having a go at a rival for a mistimed tackle.

Pulido, 25, is then reported to have rushed over and punched the teen in the face multiple times during the Cannán League game.

After Torres fell to the ground, Pulido allegedly carried on striking him in the back of the head, which caused fatal trauma.

Emergency services were called to the scene but Torres had died by the time they arrived after he was seen convulsing.

Pulido is then said to have fled the scene.

He was arrested on Friday, October 10 after a court order was issued for him to be tracked down.

A court judge charged him with intentional homicide, and he remains in police custody as the investigation continues.

In a statement the Public Prosecutor’s Office said: “On the night of 9 September 2024, Moisés ‘N’ was taking part in a soccer game with the victim on opposing teams.

“At one point, the suspect allegedly hit the victim in the face and then continued to hit him on the back of his head.”

The October 13, 2023, attack in southern Lebanon killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six other reporters.

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Lebanon to continue its pursuit of justice over a deadly Israeli strike two years ago that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six other reporters.

The rights group said in a statement on Monday that it welcomed a move by Lebanon’s Ministry of Justice to investigate legal options to press charges against Israel for crimes against journalists.

Reporters Without Borders also welcomed that “Lebanon is finally taking action” as Israel is accused of targeting a large number of journalists during its military aggression in Gaza and Lebanon.

Issam Abdallah, a videographer for the Reuters news agency, was killed in the October 13, 2023, attack by an Israeli tank on southern Lebanon near the Israeli border. Two Al Jazeera reporters were among those injured.

HRW said Lebanon’s announcement last week that it was looking at legal options to pursue the matter presented a “fresh opportunity to achieve justice for the victims”.

Ramzi Kaiss, the NGO’s Lebanon researcher, said the country’s action to hold Israel accountable is overdue.

“Israel’s apparently deliberate killing of Issam Abdallah should have served as a crystal clear message for Lebanon’s government that impunity for war crimes begets more war crimes,” he said.

“Since Issam’s killing, scores of other civilians in Lebanon have been killed in apparently deliberate or indiscriminate attacks that violate the laws of war and amount to war crimes,” Kaiss asserted.

‘War crime’

The October 2023 attack wounded Al Jazeera cameraman Elie Brakhia and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, Reuters journalists Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, and the AFP news agency’s Christina Assi and Dylan Collins.

Assi was seriously wounded and had to have her right leg amputated.

HRW said an investigation by the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had found that an Israeli Merkava tank had fired two 120mm rounds at the group of clearly identifiable journalists.

The journalists were removed from the hostilities and had been stationary for more than an hour when they came under fire, the report said. No exchange of fire had been recorded across the border for more than 40 minutes before the attack.

The NGO said it had found no evidence of a military target near the journalists’ location and, because the incident appeared to be a deliberate attack on civilians, it constituted a war crime.

‘Premeditated, targeted attack’

Morris Tidball-Binz, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said on Friday that the attack was “a premeditated, targeted and double-tapped attack from the Israeli forces, a clear violation, in my opinion, of [international humanitarian law], a war crime”.

Reporters Without Borders urged Beirut to refer the case to the International Criminal Court, saying on Friday: “Lebanon is finally taking action against impunity for the crime.”

In February, the Committee to Protect Journalists said a record 124 journalists had been killed in 2024 and Israel was responsible for more than two-thirds of those deaths.

Video shows the aftermath of drone and artillery strikes on a shelter in the besieged city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state, which killed at least 60 people. The attack was carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to a Sudanese medical advocacy group.

Oct. 12 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus reached America, making his first landing in the New World on one of the Bahamas Islands. Columbus thought he had reached India.

In 1810, the citizens of Munich were invited to join in celebrating the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen in what would become the first Oktoberfest.

In 1915, British nurse Edith Cavell, 49, was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium in World War I.

In 1933, the United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, otherwise known as The Rock, was acquired by the United States Department of Justice. Less than a year later, the prison would become home to some of the country’s most notorious criminals.

Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI

In 1945, President Harry Truman awarded the Medal of Honor to Desmond T. Doss, the first conscientious objector to receive the honor. Doss was the subject of Hacksaw Ridge, a 2016 movie starring Andrew Garfield.

In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev removed one of his shoes and pounded it on his desk during a speech before the United Nations.

In 1964, the Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 into orbit around Earth, with three cosmonauts aboard. It was the first spacecraft to carry a multi-person crew and the two-day mission was also the first orbital flight performed without spacesuits.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Michigan for the vice presidency to replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned two days earlier.

In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped injury in the bombing of a hotel in Brighton, England. Four people were killed in the attack, blamed on the Irish Republican Army.

In 1992, an earthquake near Cairo killed more than 500 people and injured thousands.

In 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man, died six days after he was beaten, robbed and left tied to a fence. The U.S. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is often called the “Matthew Shepard Act.”

In 2000, 17 sailors were killed and 39 injured in an explosion on the USS Cole as it refueled in Yemen. U.S. President Bill Clinton blamed the attack on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

UPI File Photo

In 2001, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to bring peace to the world and his work against AIDS and poverty.

In 2002, terrorist bombings near two crowded nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali killed more than 200 people.

In 2010, the U.S. government lifted a ban on deep-water oil and natural gas drilling for companies that obey stricter rules aimed at avoiding a repeat of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2016, CoverGirl announces its first male model, James Charles. The 17-year-old high school senior caught the attention of the makeup brand through his popular Instagram account.

In 2019, California became the first state in the United States to ban the sale of new fur products.

In 2022, a Connecticut jury ordered Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion to the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims and an FBI agent who responded to the 2012 massacre for spreading lies and calling the attack a hoax.

File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

Oct. 10 (UPI) — A plot to attack the Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and other Belgian leadership was intercepted by police in Antwerp, and three young adult men were arrested.

Prosecutors described it as a “jihadist-inspired terrorist attack.” During a search in the Deurne area of Antwerp, police found a homemade explosive that the suspects were planning to attach to a drone to execute the attack. Deurne is near the prime minister’s residence.

“The news of a planned attack targeting Prime Minister Bart De Wever is extremely shocking,” Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot wrote in a post on X. “I express my full support to the prime minister, his wife and his family, and my thanks go to the security and justice services, whose swift action has prevented the worst. It highlights that we are facing a very real terrorist threat and that we have to remain vigilant.”

Reports said that Antwerp Mayor Els van Doesburg and Dutch anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders may have also been targets. Defense Minister Theo Francken said he couldn’t confirm who else was a target but that he was not.

Francken said on Flemish public broadcaster VRT, “it is terrible for Bart and his family, and of course it’s Islamists again,” BBC reported.

The suspects were arrested on suspicion of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. They all live in Antwerp, the prosecutor’s office said. The oldest one, who is 24, was released Thursday night due to lack of evidence. The other two are expected to appear Friday before an investigating judge.

At a press conference Friday, Federal Prosecutor Ann Fransen said searches found a “bag of steel balls” and a 3D printer with “indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload.”

She said there have been 80 terrorism investigations in Belgium this year, which is more than the number of cases in all of 2024.

Five people were convicted in April of a 2023 plot to attack De Wever while he was mayor of Antwerp. De Wever is conservative and is the first Flemish nationalist to be prime minister.