Generation Alpha’s perhaps meaningless slang term “6-7” has been declared word of the year for 2025 by Dictionary.com. Photo by Adam Schrader
Oct. 29 (UPI) — Generation Alpha’s perhaps meaningless slang term “6-7” has been declared word of the year for 2025 by Dictionary.com, beating out words including “aura farming,” “broligarchy,” “tradwife” and the dynamite emoji.
“Each year, Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year and short-listed nominees capture pivotal moments in language and culture,” Dictionary.com said in a news release Wednesday.
“These words serve as a linguistic time capsule, reflecting social trends and global events that defined the year.”
The reference site said that, in determining the word of year, its lexicographers analyzed data including news headlines, social media trends and search engine results. Still, even Dictionary.com said it isn’t sure what it means.
“And now for the moment adults around the world have been waiting for: What does 67 mean? Well…it’s complicated,” the lexicographers said.
The term 6-7 is believed to have originated from rapper Skrilla’s song “Doot Doot (6-7),” which was released last December and was quickly used as a sound by TikTok creators making compilation videos of LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets. It quickly spread.
“Within weeks, teachers were trading tips online about how to get their students to stop saying 6-7 all day long,” Dictionary.com said.
Some say that it’s meant as an ambivalent response, like “maybe-this, maybe that.” But more often than not, Generation Alpha seems to just use it as a response to any question.
“Perhaps the most defining feature of 67 is that it’s impossible to define. It’s meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical. In other words, it has all the hallmarks of brainrot,” Dictionary.com said.
“It’s the logical endpoint of being perpetually online, scrolling endlessly, consuming content fed to users by algorithms trained by other algorithms.”
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared Jamaica a “disaster area” after Hurricane Melissa barrelled across the Caribbean island as one of the most powerful storms on record, leaving behind a trail of devastation.
The hurricane – which made landfall as a Category 5 storm on Tuesday – ripped off the roofs of homes, inundated the nation’s “bread basket”, and felled power lines and trees, leaving most of its 2.8 million people without electricity.
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Melissa took hours to cross over Jamaica, a passage over land that diminished its winds, dropping it down to a Category 3 storm, before it ramped back up as it continued on Wednesday towards Cuba.
Holness said in a series of posts on X that the storm has “ravaged” his country and the disaster declaration gives his government “tools to continue managing” its response to the storm.
“It is clear that where the eye of the hurricane hit, there would be devastating impact,” he told the United States news channel CNN late on Tuesday. “Reports we have had so far include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property as well, and damage to our road infrastructure.”
Holness said he does not have any confirmed reports of deaths at the moment. “But with a Category 5 hurricane, … we are expecting some loss of life,” he added.
The prime minister said his government was mobilising quickly to start relief and recovery efforts by Wednesday morning.
Even before Melissa slammed into Jamaica, seven deaths – three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic – were caused by the hurricane.
Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica’s local government minister, told reporters on Tuesday evening that the storm had caused damage across almost every parish in the country and left most of the island without electricity.
He said the storm had put the parish of St Elizabeth, the country’s main agricultural region, “under water”.
“The damage to St Elizabeth is extensive, based on what we have seen,” the minister said, adding that “almost every parish is experiencing blocked roads, fallen trees and utility poles, and excess flooding in many communities.”
“Work is presently on the way to restore our service, to give priorities to the critical facilities, such as hospitals and water and pumping stations,” he added.
The storm caused “significant damage” to at least four hospitals, Health and Wellness Minister Christopher Tufton told the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper.
A roof was completely torn off a building at a section of the Savanna La Mar Public General Hospital due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa. The system made landfall earlier today near New Hope district in Westmoreland, Jamaica. #GLNRToday#TrackingMelissapic.twitter.com/zBnm9bu4Oq
Robian Williams, a journalist with the Nationwide News Network radio broadcaster in Kingston, told Al Jazeera that the storm was the “worst we’ve ever experienced”.
“It’s truly heartbreaking, devastating,” she said from the capital.
“We’re calling Hurricane Melissa ‘Monstrous Melissa’ here in Jamaica because that’s how powerful she was. … The devastation is widespread, mostly being felt and still being felt in the western ends of the country at this point in time. So many homes, so many people have been displaced,” she said.
“We did prepare, but there wasn’t much that we could have done.”
In Kingston, Lisa Sangster, a 30-year-old communications specialist, said her home was devastated by the storm.
“My sister … explained that parts of our roof was blown off and other parts caved in and the entire house was flooded,” she told the AFP news agency. “Outside structures like our outdoor kitchen, dog kennel and farm animal pens were also gone, destroyed.”
Mathue Tapper, 31, told AFP that those in the capital were “lucky” but he feared for people in Jamaica’s more rural areas.
“My heart goes out to the folks living on the western end of the island,” he said.
Melissa restrengthens
The US National Hurricane Center warned on Tuesday night that Melissa was restrengthening as it approached eastern Cuba.
“Expected to make landfall there as an extremely dangerous major hurricane in the next few hours,” the centre warned at 11pm Cuba time on Tuesday (03:00 GMT on Wednesday).
Authorities in Cuba have evacuated more than 700,000 people, according to Granma, the official newspaper, and forecasters said the Category 4 storm would unleash catastrophic damage in Santiago de Cuba and nearby areas.
People shelter from the rain in Santiago de Cuba on October 28, 2025 [Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA]
A hurricane warning was in effect for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas as well as for the southeastern and central Bahamas. A hurricane watch was in effect for Bermuda.
The storm was expected to generate a storm surge of up to 3.6 metres (12ft) in the region and drop up to 51cm (20 inches) of rain in parts of eastern Cuba.
“There will be a lot of work to do. We know there will be a lot of damage,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a televised address in which he assured that “no one is left behind and no resources are spared to protect the lives of the population”.
At the same time, he urged Cubans not to underestimate the power of Hurricane Melissa, “the strongest ever to hit national territory”.
Climate change
Although Jamaica and Cuba are used to hurricanes, climate change is making the storms more severe.
British-Jamaican climate change activist and author Mikaela Loach said in a video shared on social media that Melissa “gained energy from the extremely and unnaturally hot seas in the Caribbean”.
“These sea temperatures are not natural,” Loach said. “They’re extremely hot because of the gasses that have resulted from burning fossil fuels.”
“Countries like Jamaica, countries that are most vulnerable to climate disaster are also countries that have had their wealth and resources stripped away from them through colonial bondage,” Loach added.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in September, Holness urged wealthy countries to increase climate financing to assist countries like Jamaica with adapting to the effects of a warming world.
“Climate change is not a distant threat or an academic consideration. It is a daily reality for small island developing states like Jamaica,” he said.
Jamaica is responsible for just 0.02 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming, according to data from the World Resources Institute.
But like other tropical islands, it is expected to continue to bear the brunt of worsening climate effects.
Tensions have grown between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago over support for US military action in the Caribbean.
Venezuela has declared Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister a persona non grata, as the two countries continue to feud over United States military activity in the Caribbean Sea.
On Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly voted in favour of the sanction against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has been sparring with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. It designates her as unwelcome in the country and bars her from entering.
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Asked a day earlier about the prospect, Persad-Bissessar told the news agency AFP: “Why would they think I would want to go to Venezuela?”
The two countries – separated by a small bay just 11km (7 miles) wide at its narrowest point – have been at loggerheads in recent weeks over the US military activity in the region.
Persad-Bissessar is one of the few Caribbean leaders to applaud the build-up of US military forces in the Caribbean as well as its bombing campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats.
“I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Persad-Bissessar said shortly after the first missile strike was announced on September 2.
“I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all, violently.”
But that stance has put her at odds with Maduro’s government. Just this week, Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Yvan Gil Pinto told the United Nations General Assembly that the US strikes were an “illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads”.
Legal experts have compared the bombing campaign with extrajudicial killings, citing likely violations of international law. At least 13 strikes have occurred so far against 14 maritime vessels, most of them small boats.
An estimated 57 people have been killed in the US attacks. Their identities are unknown, and no definitive evidence has been provided to the public so far to link them to drug trafficking.
Relations frayed over US strikes
Labelling Persad-Bissessar a persona non grata is just the latest chapter in the tit-for-tat between the two countries.
On Tuesday, AFP reported that Trinidad and Tobago was considering a “mass deportation” of undocumented migrants, most of whom are Venezuelans, from its territory.
According to a memorandum reviewed by the news agency, Trinidad and Tobago’s homeland security minister, Roger Alexander, ordered a halt to any planned releases of “illegal immigrants” in detention.
“Consideration is currently being given to the implementation of a mass deportation exercise,” the memo said.
That comes after Maduro ordered the “immediate suspension” of a major gas deal with Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, citing the island nation’s reception of a US warship.
The island is hosting one of several US warships deployed near Venezuelan waters by President Donald Trump. Venezuelan officials have accused the US president of seeking to overturn Maduro’s government.
In cancelling the gas deal, Maduro accused Persad-Bissessar of transforming the Caribbean nation “into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela”.
The Pentagon has so far deployed seven warships, a submarine, drones and fighter jets to the Caribbean, as well as another warship to the Gulf of Mexico.
The rate of the US bombing campaign has increased in recent weeks, with six strikes announced over the last week alone.
Its scope has also broadened, with strikes taking place this month in the Eastern Pacific Ocean near Colombia, as well as the Caribbean waters off Venezuela’s shores.
Some observers believe the Trump administration is using the US military to pressure and destabilise Maduro, who was re-elected last year in what the US has dismissed as a fraudulent election.
Persad-Bissessar, however, has been steadfast in her support of the US campaign, saying she would rather see drug traffickers “blown to pieces” than have them contribute to deaths in her country.
Peru’s interim president Jose Jeri has declared a 30-day state of emergency in the capital Lima and nearby Callao, saying the decision was to tackle surging crime. Anti-government protests last week left one person dead and over 100 injured.
Donald Trump says there is peace in the Middle East, after signing the Gaza ceasefire deal. But when asked about a two-state solution, Trump suggested he hadn’t focused on long-term solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Analysts say there will be no lasting peace in the Middle East, without a Palestinian state.
Trump has been snubbed and denied the Nobel Prize he so wanted
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María Corina Machado – a Venezuelan politician – won the awardCredit: Getty
He insisted the breakthrough was “signed, sealed and already started” — and hailed it as the crowning achievement of a presidency he says has stopped eight wars.
“It’s certainly, I think, to the mind of most, the most important deal ever made in terms of peace,” Trump said on Friday.
The president said the ceasefire marked “a great deal for Israel, but it’s a great deal for everybody — for Arabs, for Muslims, for the world,” and confirmed that the release of hostages would begin on Monday.
“We’re getting them now. They’re gathering them from some pretty rough places on earth,” he said.
The decision to snub Trump came the day after Israel and Hamas signed a peace deal that he engineered to end the war and return the hostages.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was instead awarded to María Corina Machado – a Venezuelan politician and activist – for her “tireless work” organising the democratic opposition to dictatorship in Venezuela.
The US President accused China of taking an “extraordinarily aggressive position” on trade, slamming what he called an “extremely hostile letter to the world” that outlined measures to control “virtually every product they make”.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump vowed to hit back hard, saying he would also impose US export controls on any critical software heading to China.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan politician Machado dedicated the Nobel Prize to the US President.
She wrote on X: “This recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task: to conquer Freedom.
“We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy.
“I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
The Nobel Committee paid tribute to Machado’s “struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.
It said the award was in recognition of her “tireless work” to protect rights and fight for a transition to democracy in Venezuela.
Trump says Hamas & Israel agree historic deal freeing hostages and an end to fighting in first phase of peace plan
Announcing the winner, Jørgen Watne Frydnes lauded her as “a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness”.
He said: “When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.”
He later explained why the US president was not given the award.
He said: “I think this committee has seen [every] type of campaign [and] media attention. We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people saying what, for them, leads to peace.”
“But this committee sits in a room with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So, we base only our decision on the work and will of Alfred Nobel.”
Machado has been living in hiding for the past year, after her fearless work incited “serious threats against her life”.
Troubled Venezuela is currently ruled by Nicolás Maduro, who is widely recognised as a dictator.
His government has routinely targeted its real or perceived opponents.
Machado, who turned 58 this week, was set to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government disqualified her.
The election results announced by the Electoral Council sparked protests across the country to which the government responded with force that ended with more than 20 people dead.
Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since January.
Trump, who is in his second term as America’s president, has long wished for a Nobel Peace Prize.
He claims to have stopped seven conflicts in the world since his time in the office – and has made no secret of the fact that he believes he is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Last week, he teased the possibility of ending an eighth war if Israel and Hamas agree to his peace plan aimed at concluding the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
And just hours before the Nobel Peace Prize results were set to be announced, Don revealed to the world that the two warring factions had signed a peace deal – one that he engineered.
It is indeed a massive breakthrough that is set to reshape the face of the Middle East – and the world is praising the US leaders’ effort to broker the deal.
However, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prestigious peace prize, held its final meeting on Monday, the Nobel Institute said.
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Jorgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced the winner this morningCredit: AFP
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Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip celebrate after the announcementCredit: AP
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Palestinians celebrate on a street following the news that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of the peace dealCredit: Reuters
This means that the decision to give the award to Machado was made before the conclusion of an agreement between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday night.
Historian Asle Sveen, a specialist in the Nobel Prize, said he was “one hundred per cent certain” that Trump will not win this year’s Nobel Prize.
He emphasised that the US president had long “given free rein” to Netanyahu to bomb Gaza and had provided significant military aid to Israel – something that the prize committee must have taken into account.
A global ‘peacemaker’
All eyes were on his nomination this year after the self-proclaimed peacemaker launched a campaign in a bid to win the award.
He has repeatedly asserted since his return to the White House in January that he deserves the nod, adding it would be “a big insult” to the United States if he were not given the prize.
In February this year, during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, he said: “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”
Even during his speech at the 80th UN General Assembly in New York, Trump said that “everyone” says he should get it.
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Benjamin Netanyahu’s office posted an AI-generated picture of Bibi awarding Trump the Nobel PrizeCredit: X
He said: “Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each one of these achievements, but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up with their mothers and fathers, because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless and unglorious wars.
“What I care about is not winning prizes as much as saving lives.”
Numerous world leaders endorsed him for the honour, including Netanyahu, who posted an AI-generated image of him awarding Trump the Nobel Prize.
Olivier Nduhungirehe, the Rwandan foreign minister, credited Trump for how he helped end the 30-year conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Pakistan also endorsed Trump for the prize this year. Though the Islamic Republic slammed him for bombing Iran in less than 24 hours.
Putin said Russia supported Trump’s nomination as long as Washington did not supply long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
Experts say the Nobel Prize committee may take Trump’s efforts to bring peace in Gaza – if it lasts – into consideration for next year’s award.
How is the Nobel Peace Prize winner decided?
By Patrick Harrington, Foreign News reporter
THE winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is chosen through a highly secretive deliberation process.
Every year since 1901, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has met to discuss who is worthy of taking home prize.
Nominations close in January, and the Committee comes together throughout the next eight months to confer.
Its five members meet along with a secretary in the Committee Room of Oslo’s Nobel institute.
They read aloud the criteria set out by Alfred Nobel in his will.
It says the prize should be awarded to the person who has done the most for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, or for holding or promoting peace congresses.
Then, they enter intense discussions in order to thrash out the decision.
Committee chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes told the BBC: “We discuss, we argue, there is a high temperature.
“But also, of course, we are civilised, and we try to make a consensus-based decision every year.”
If there is no consensus over who should win, then it goes comes down to a simple majority vote.
North Korea ‘is in its strongest strategic position in decades’, US military intelligence said in May.
North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has said the use of artificial intelligence is a “top priority” in modernising his country’s increasingly sophisticated weapons technology and building up drone capabilities, state media reports.
During a visit to the Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Complex in the capital Pyongyang on Thursday, Kim presided over performance tests of multipurpose drones and unmanned surveillance vehicles, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday.
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According to KCNA, the North Korean leader emphasised “rapidly developing the newly-introduced artificial intelligence technology” as a “top priority” in order to increase his military’s unmanned weapons systems.
Kim also called for “expanding and strengthening the serial production capacity of drones”.
The visit to the aeronautical complex comes just a week after Kim oversaw another test of a new solid-fuel rocket engine designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles, which he hailed as a “significant” expansion of Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities.
North Korea’s military power includes nuclear-armed ballistic and cruise missiles, an increasing stockpile of nuclear weapons and a nascent spy satellite programme, according to the United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
North Korean active duty personnel now number an estimated one million troops, and are supplemented by more than seven million reservists – out of a population of roughly 25.6 million.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, centre, leads the performance test of an unmanned strategic reconnaissance aircraft at an undisclosed location in North Korea [KCNA via KNS/AFP]
The country’s level of AI development is less certain, however.
One report from independent analysis group 38 North found North Korea has engaged in cross-border collaborative AI research with academics in the US, China and South Korea despite sanctions, suggesting it has undertaken “substantial efforts” to catch up in the AI race.
Those efforts have largely relied on China, one of the world’s most dominant AI players, the 38 North report added.
While Pyongyang has long depended on China politically and economically, under Kim, it has steadily sought to strengthen its relationship with Russia.
Last year, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a mutual defence treaty that raised eyebrows in the West.
Pyongyang may not have benefitted as handsomely as Moscow from the deal.
A German think tank recently reported that while North Korea has provided nearly $10bn in weapons to Moscow, along with tens of thousands of soldiers to help Russian forces battle Ukraine, it has only received some $457m to $1.19bn in return.
Moscow’s aid has consisted mainly of food, fuel, air defence systems and possibly some fighter aircraft for North Korea.
Earlier this month, Kim appeared in Beijing with both his Chinese and Russian counterparts – President Xi Jinping and President Putin – in what analysts viewed as a stark display of North Korea’s desire to take up the world stage.
In May, the DIA reported that North Korea “is in its strongest strategic position in decades, possessing the military means to hold at risk US forces and US allies in Northeast Asia, while continuing to improve its capability to threaten the US”.
For his part, Kim has panned joint US-South Korea drills as “a rehearsal of a war of aggression” against his country.
The Southern Section announced on Friday that it has declared 19 transfer students at Bishop Montgomery athletically ineligible for two years following an investigation that determined they violated CIF bylaws when moving to the Catholic school in Torrance to play football.
The announcement comes after the school fired its coach, Ed Hodgkiss, canceled the rest of its season after playing one game and announced the resignation of President Patrick Lee following an investigation by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The Southern Section released the following statement: “Based upon the investigation, self-reporting, and findings of Bishop Montgomery High School, along with CIF-Southern Section’s own independent review, the Southern Section has determined that multiple students transferred to Bishop Montgomery High School to play varsity football for the 2025-2026 school year in violation of CIF bylaws.
“Notification has been sent to Bishop Montgomery High School administrators and parents/guardians of the football transfer student-athletes. Those determinations [have been/will be] posted on the CIF-Southern Section website in conformance with Section practices. The CIF-Southern Section and its staff will not comment on individual student athletic eligibility.”
The Southern Section previously announced ineligibility for five players. After further investigation, there are 19 players listed as ineligible on the Southern Section transfer portal.
Some of those players were expected to try to transfer to other schools after Bishop Montgomery discontinued varsity football. They are listed as ineligible for two years. Those players can appeal to try to restore their eligibility.
For months in the spring and summer, Bishop Montgomery had been touting its transfers. The school scheduled powerhouse Mater Dei for a nonleague game even though its program was primarily Division 10 or 11 in past years. While transfers were checking in, none of the paperwork was submitted to the Southern Section until August. That’s when trouble began.
This year, the Southern Section has been using AI and possibly funds available through the state CIF to hire investigators to double-check transfers submitted by schools. Previously when a school approved a verified change of address, it was mostly automatically accepted. There have been other schools determined to have ineligible players, with Long Beach Millikan having to forfeit two games.
This comes after a booster to Narbonne, St. Bernard and Bishop Montgomery, Brett Steigh, received a letter from an attorney with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles telling him to “cease and desist” from helping any Catholic schools.
Steigh went on a podcast to say he paid parents to transfer their sons to Narbonne in 2024 and he also helped pay tuition of football players at St. Bernard in 2020. The football program was dropped there in 2021, 2022 and 2023 after the head coach resigned in the middle of an FBI and IRS investigation.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom used his written State of the State address Tuesday to cast California as a bulwark against a menacing Trump administration he accused of dismantling public services, flouting the rule of law and using extortion to bully businesses and universities.
The remarks came as Newsom’s national profile has grown and given him a broader political stage, even as he skipped the literal one — opting to send his speech to lawmakers in writing rather than deliver it from the Assembly rostrum, which is customary. His address painted a portrait of a state under siege by the federal government even as it grapples with the aftermath of the devastating Los Angeles County fires, spiraling housing costs and an uneven economic recovery.
While he framed Trump and his allies as the chief obstacle to progress, he leaned on familiar themes of California’s resilience, pointing to disaster response, investments in schools and clean energy and the state’s economic staying power. He said as California celebrates the 175th anniversary of statehood, “the state of the state is strong, fully committed to defending democracy, and resolved to never bend.”
“It would be a mistake to think California is cowering in the face of this onslaught,” Newsom said in the 2,300-word address accompanied by a shortened video version.
The written address marks the fifth year in a row that Newsom has diverged from the decades-old tradition of the governor delivering the annual address in person to lawmakers at the state Capitol.
His unconventional approach has drawn some criticism, particularly by Republicans who characterized it as an example of Newsom lacking respect for the institution. California’s Constitution only requires that the State of the State be submitted as a written letter to the Legislature, which was how governors up until roughly the 1960s fulfilled their duty. Starting with the late Gov. Pat Brown, the addresses were delivered in person, typically in January as a way to set the agenda for the year.
Newsom, who dislikes reading from a teleprompter due to his dyslexia, has not delivered his State of the State in the Capitol since 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Newsom’s address was streamed from an empty Dodgers Stadium and, two years later, he declined to give a speech in lieu of a statewide press tour, during which he unveiled new policies.
“His ambitions are more than his ability to govern this state,” Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher of Yuba City said in a video posted on X. “And here is another symbol of that, not showing up to talk about what is actually going on in the state and how we can actually come together to get things done.”
This year’s speech arrives unusually late in the year, as lawmakers race to approve hundreds of bills ahead of Friday’s legislative deadline. It also comes at a moment when Newsom, in the final stretch of his governorship, is drawing national attention not only for his confrontations with Trump but also for a shrewd social media assault that borrows the president’s own trolling style to energize supporters and burnish his public brand.
But Newsom’s record has also drawn sharp criticism.
After nearly two terms, California continues to wrestle with entrenched homelessness, soaring housing costs and one of the nation’s highest costs of living. A budget deficit has swelled in part because the governor expanded Medi-Cal healthcare coverage to include all income-eligible undocumented immigrants. And his move to undercut Texas lawmakers who redrew legislative maps to add additional Republican seats in Congress by asking California voters to do the same to add Democrats has fueled charges that he is accelerating a national wave of partisan gerrymandering and energizing state Republicans.
“My last letter to you warned about the poisonous populism of the right and the anxiety many people were feeling about the state of this country — some of it grounded in real fear about the national economy, but much of it stoked by misinformation and bigotry,” Newsom wrote to lawmakers. “We are now nine months into a battle to protect the values we hold most dear and to preserve the economic and social foundation we built for California. We are facing a federal administration built on incompetence and malicious ignorance, one that seeks the death of independent thinking.”
Newsom said California showed the country its resilient spirit in January during the deadly wind-driven wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes and forced mass evacuations in Los Angeles County. Newsom credited emergency responders who put their lives at risk saving trapped residents.
“Through executive orders waiving red tape, the state paved the way for debris-removal crews to move quickly through damaged areas and streamlined permits to speed rebuilding,” Newsom wrote. “Homes are now rising.”
While California looked to the Trump administration for help, Newsom said the state has found none.
“Even as fires still burned, the newly elected President began targeting our state — testing our resolve with his relentless, unhinged California obsession,” Newsom wrote.
From fires to immigration, Newsom said Trump’s approach has been the same: Abandon California when it is in crisis and attack its liberal values. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for federal authorities to return to mass immigration arrests at workplaces, bus stops and other places in Los Angeles. Newsom said Trump’s decision in June to deploy the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to help with immigration enforcement was a “cowardly attempt to scare us into submission.”
“We are committed to protecting the men and women who make this state stronger through their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit,” Newsom wrote before pivoting to Trump’s ongoing attacks on university funding. “And when the President threatens to bankrupt UCLA — an engine of innovation and economic prosperity, a world leader in science and medicine — with his own bankrupt ideas, he will fail.”
California has led the way in building a green economy, Newsom said, pointing to more than2 million zero-emission vehicles sold in the state and 51 miles of Caltrain railroad tracks now electrified. The state’s grid has run for the equivalent of 60 full days using 100% clean electricity, he added.
“Our climate investments will create millions of new jobs and cut air pollution by more than 70%,” Newsom wrote. “In California, economic growth and environmental protection go hand in hand.”
Like past governors, he used the speech to underscore California’s outsized role in the national economy. With a gross domestic product topping $4.1 trillion, he said the state leads in startups, venture capital and space technology.
The governor closed on a note of defiance, promising to report next year — in what would be his final State of the State — that California is “brighter and more prosperous than ever before.”
Carlo Acutis, a digital pioneer, used his computer skills to spread Catholic teaching globally.
Published On 7 Sep 20257 Sep 2025
A London-born Italian teenager, known as “God’s influencer”, who was an early adopter of the internet to spread Catholic teachings, has been made the church’s first millennial saint at a ceremony led by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican.
Leo canonised Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 aged 15, in a ceremony attended by thousands on Sunday in St Peter’s Square. At the Mass, the pontiff also canonised Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died in 1924 but was widely recognised for his charitable work.
During a speech at the event, Leo credited Acutis and Frassati for making “masterpieces” out of their lives, warning congregants that the “greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan”.
Often seen photographed in his casual outfits, with scruffy hair, T-shirts and sunglasses, Acutis cuts a different figure from the church’s saints of the past who were often depicted in solemn paintings. This has built a global following for Acutis, with the church intending him to be a more relatable saint for digitally-focused young people today.
Leo said Acutis and Frassati’s lives are an “invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces”.
Acutis was born in London in 1991 but moved early on in his life to the northern Italian city of Milan with his family, where he lived until he died of leukaemia in 2006.
As a teenager, Acutis taught himself coding and programming, using the skills he had acquired to document recognised church miracles to spread Catholic teaching globally. His pioneering digital efforts took place at a time when literacy around those subjects was not widespread.
He was also believed to have regularly attended church services, been kind to the homeless and children who suffered bullying, which endeared him to Catholic youth globally.
Shortly after he died, Antonia Salzano, Acutis’s mother, began advocating globally for her son to be recognised as a saint, which requires that he carry out miracles during his life.
Pope Francis, whose death in April this year led to a delay in the saint-making ceremony for Acutis, said the teenager carried out two miracles during his life. According to the Catholic News Agency, Acutis healed a boy who had a birth defect affecting his pancreas and a girl who sustained an injury in Costa Rica.
In a 2019 letter to Catholics, Pope Francis acknowledged Acutis’s efforts, saying, “It is true that the digital world can expose you to the risk of self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasure.” He added, “But don’t forget that there are young people even there who show creativity and even genius. That was the case with the Venerable Carlo Acutis.”
Acutis’s body, encased in wax, lies in a glass tomb in Assisi, a medieval town in central Italy, which is a pilgrimage site visited by hundreds of thousands of people annually. Our Lady of Dolours Church in London, where he was baptised, has also attracted growing numbers of visitors. A part of his heart has been removed from his body as a relic and has been displayed at churches globally.
The Southern Section has declared five football transfers to Bishop Montgomery ineligible for violating CIF rule 202, which is a bylaw about providing false information and comes with a penalty of up to two years of ineligibility.
Bishop Montgomery has been under scrutiny for months because of numerous transfer students, coaching changes and a decision to try to upgrade the program by scheduling powerhouses Mater Dei and Honolulu (Hawaii) Saint Louis.
The Southern Section could offer no response until paperwork was submitted by the school. Now those five players, plus potentially others, are facing the possibility of missing the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles replaced the president and principal of Bishop Montgomery last school year. New president Patrick Lee is a former St. John Bosco administrator.
Government says move aims to boost ‘fight against insecurity’ as armed gangs continue to carry out attacks across the country.
Haiti’s government has announced a three-month state of emergency in several parts of the country as it battles surging gang violence.
The measure will cover the West, Centre and Artibonite departments, the latter of which is known as Haiti’s “rice basket” and has experienced an increase in attacks by armed groups in recent months.
In a statement on Saturday, the government said the state of emergency would allow the Haitian authorities to “continue the fight against insecurity and respond to the agricultural and food crisis”.
“Insecurity has negative effect both on the lives of citizens and on the country’s different sectors of activity. Given the scale of this crisis, it is imperative to decree a major mobilisation of the state’s resources and institutional means to address it,” it said.
Haiti has reeled from years of violence as powerful armed groups, often with ties to the country’s political and business leaders, have vied for influence and control of territory.
But the situation worsened dramatically after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, which created a power vacuum.
Nearly 1.3 million people have been displaced across the country, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in June, while the United Nations estimates that 4,864 people were killed from October 2024 to June of this year.
Efforts to stem the deadly gang attacks, including the deployment of a UN-backed, Kenya-led police mission, have so far failed to restore stability.
While much of the focus has been on Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where up to 90 percent of the city is under the control of armed groups, the violence has also been spreading to other parts of the country.
Between October 2024 and the end of June, more than 1,000 Haitians were killed and 620 were kidnapped in the Artibonite and Centre departments, according to the UN’s human rights office.
In late April, dozens of people waded and swam across the Artibonite River, which cuts through the region, in a desperate attempt to flee the gangs.
Meanwhile, the government on Friday appointed Andre Jonas Vladimir Paraison as interim director of Haiti’s National Police, which has been working with Kenyan police officers leading the UN-backed mission to help quell the violence.
“We, the police, will not sleep,” Paraison said during his inauguration ceremony. “We will provide security across every corner of the country.”
Paraison previously served as head of security of Haiti’s National Palace and was on duty as a police officer when Moise was killed at his private residence in July 2021.
He replaced Normil Rameau, whose tenure of just more than a year was marked by tensions with a faction of the Transitional Presidential Council, notably Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime.
Rameau had repeatedly warned about the police force’s severe underfunding.
The change comes as Laurent Saint-Cyr, a wealthy businessman, also took over this week as president of the Transitional Presidential Council, which is charged with holding elections by February 2026.
British Airways flight BA1410 from London Heathrow to Belfast declared a mid-air emergency and was forced to divert to Manchester Airport
12:11, 27 Jul 2025Updated 12:12, 27 Jul 2025
A British Airways Airbus A319 was forced to divert after pilots declared emergency(Image: Getty Images)
A British Airways service bound for Belfast had to make an unexpected detour when the pilots issued an emergency alert.
The BA1410 flight took off from London Heathrow at 08:05 BST on July 26, but around half an hour into the journey, the crew triggered a 7700 emergency code, as reported by AirLive.
The aircraft then entered a holding pattern before being directed to Manchester Airport due to what was believed to be a potential depressurisation problem.
Emergency services were on standby as the Airbus A319, with a capacity of up to 130 passengers, touched down.
Sources indicate that the diversion resulted from a technical glitch in a sensor device, with passengers forced to disembark for thorough inspections by British Airways technicians.
An alternative plane was subsequently arranged, allowing travellers to resume their trips after approximately a three-hour delay.
Matthew Hall, the managing director of airport transfers app hoppa, has previously noted that compensation entitlements typically hinge on whether the disruption stems from airline faults, such as mechanical defects or staff shortages.
Hall remarked, “Since leaving the EU, UK flights are still covered by a similar law that protects passenger’s rights when faced with travel delays.”, reports Belfast Live.
This protection extends to departures from UK airports, arrivals at UK airports on EU or UK carriers, departures from EAA airports, or arrivals in the EU on UK airlines.
“If your flight is a non-UK flight that is part of a connection to a UK flight, then you can still claim if you are delayed for more than three hours, you booked the flights as a single booking, and the delay is the airlines fault,” Hall elaborates.
By law, cancellations with less than 14 days notice entitle you to compensation, depending on the length of the flight route. “With short-haul flights (<1,500km, i.e. Manchester to Dublin) you could be entitled to £220 if arriving at your final destination more than two hours after originally planned, reduced to £110 if arriving within two hours of schedule and announced with more than seven days’ notice,” Hall explains.
This increases to £350 for medium-haul flights (1,500-3,500km i.e. Leeds Bradford to Tenerife South) if you arrive at your final destination more than three hours after originally planned, according to Hall.
“Although, this can be reduced to £175 if arriving within three hours of schedule and announced with more than seven days’ notice,” Hall adds.
Syria’s government says it has cleared Bedouin fighters from the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda and declared a halt to the deadly clashes there, hours after deploying security forces to the restive southern region.
The announcement on Saturday came after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa ordered a new ceasefire between Bedouin and Druze groups, following a separate United States-brokered deal to avert further Israeli military intervention in the clashes.
Shortly before the government’s claim, there were reports of machinegun fire in the city of Suwayda as well as mortar shelling in nearby villages.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Nour al-Din Baba, a spokesman for the Syrian Ministry of Interior, said in a statement carried by the official Sana news agency that the fighting ended “following intensive efforts” to implement the ceasefire agreement and the deployment of government forces in the northern and western areas of Suwayda province.
He said the city of Suwayda has now been “cleared of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city’s neighbourhoods have been brought to a halt”.
Israeli intervention
The fighting broke out last week when the abduction of a Druze truck driver on a public highway set off a series of revenge attacks and resulted in tribal fighters from all over the country streaming into Suwayda in support of the Bedouin community there.
The clashes drew in Syrian government troops, too.
Israel also intervened in the conflict on Wednesday, carrying out heavy air attacks on Suwayda and Syria’s capital, Damascus, claiming it was to protect the Druze community after leaders of the minority group accused government forces of abuses against them.
At least 260 people have been killed in the fighting, and 1,700 others have been wounded, according to the Syrian Ministry of Health. Other groups, however, put the figure at more than 900 victims.
More than 87,000 people have also been displaced.
The fighting is the latest challenge to al-Sharaa’s government, which took over after toppling President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Al-Sharaa, in a televised statement on Saturday, called on all parties to lay down arms and help the government restore peace.
“While we thank the [Bedouin] clans for their heroic stance, we call on them to adhere to the ceasefire and follow the orders of the state,” he said. “All should understand this moment requires unity and full cooperation, so we can overcome these challenges and preserve our country from foreign interference and internal sedition.”
He condemned Israel’s intervention in the unrest, saying it “pushed the country into a dangerous phase that threatened its stability”.
After the president’s call, Bedouin groups confirmed leaving the city of Suwayda.
“Following consultations with all members of Suwayda’s clans and tribes, we have decided to adhere to the ceasefire, prioritise reason and restraint, and allow the state’s authorised institutions the space to carry out their responsibilities in restoring security and stability,” they said in a statement.
“Therefore, we declare that all our fighters have been withdrawn from the city of Suwayda,” they added.
Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Damascus said the Druze, too, seemed to have accepted the truce.
“Hikmat Al Hajri, a prominent spiritual leader, has called for all Bedouin fighters to be escorted safely out of Suwayda. Security forces from the interior ministry have been deployed to help separate rival groups, and oversee the implementation of the ceasefire. But there are still reports of ongoing fighting in the city, with some Druze leaders voicing strong opposition to the cessation of hostilities,” he said.
Vall added that while “there is hope” of an end to the hostilities, “there is also doubt that this conflict is over”.
World welcomes truce
Jordan, meanwhile, has hosted talks with Syria and the US on efforts to consolidate the ceasefire in Suwayda.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shibani and the US special envoy for Syria, Thomas Barak, “discussed the situation in Syria and efforts to consolidate the ceasefire reached around Suwayda Governorate to prevent bloodshed and preserve the safety of civilians”, according to a readout by the Jordanian government.
The three officials agreed on “practical steps” to support the ceasefire, including the release of detainees held by all parties, Syrian security force deployments and community reconciliation efforts.
Safadi also welcomed the Syrian government’s “commitment to holding accountable all those responsible for violations against Syrian citizens” in the Suwayda area, the statement said.
Countries around the world have also called for the truce to be upheld.
The United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, said in a post on X that he was horrified by the violence in southern Syria and that “a sustainable ceasefire is vital”.
France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs stressed the need for “Syrian authorities to ensure the safety and rights of all segments of the Syrian people”, and called for investigations into abuses against civilians in Suwayda.
Japan also expressed concern over the violence, including the Israeli strikes, and called for the ceasefire to be implemented swiftly.
It added that it “strongly urges all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint, preserve Syria’s territorial integrity and national unity, and respect its independence and sovereignty”.
Syria’s security forces have begun deploying in the restive southern province of Suwayda, a Ministry of Interior spokesperson has said, where heavy fighting between Druze and Bedouin armed groups and government forces has left hundreds dead, compounded by Israeli military intervention.
The deployment on Saturday came hours after the United States announced that Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, an as yet uncertain truce amidst overnight fighting.
Syria’s government announced the ceasefire early on Saturday, saying in a statement it is being enacted “to spare Syrian blood, preserve the unity of Syrian territory, the safety of its people”.
The country’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in a televised address, stated that he “received international calls to intervene in what is happening in Suwayda and restore security to the country”.
Israeli intervention has “reignited tensions” in the city, with fighting there “a dangerous turning point”, he said, also thanking the US for its support.
Earlier, Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba had said in a statement on Telegram that “internal security forces have begun deploying in Suwayda province … with the aim of protecting civilians and putting an end to the chaos.”
Ethnically charged clashes between Druze and Bedouin armed groups and government forces have reportedly left hundreds dead in recent days.
On Wednesday, Israel launched heavy air attacks on Syria’s Ministry of Defence in the heart of Damascus, and also hit Syrian government forces in the Suwayda region, claiming it had done so to protect the Druze, who it calls its “brothers”.
Communities in Suwayda are ‘noble people’
“Al-Sharaa said that national unity was a priority for his government and that part of the role of the government was to be a neutral referee between all parties,” said Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from the capital Damascus.
“He praised the people of Suwayda, other than the few elements that wanted to sow trouble, saying that both Druze and Arab communities in the city were noble people.”
It was unclear whether Syrian troops reached Suwayda city as of Saturday morning or were still on the city’s outskirts, Vall said.
Bedouin tribal fighters had been waiting to hear more from the government about the ceasefire, while Druze leaders have varying attitudes on it – some welcoming it, and others pledging to continue fighting, he added.
Fighting has “been going on throughout the night”, but the deployment of Syria’s internal security forces was “welcome news” to many in the city, Vall said.
On Friday, an Israeli official, who declined to be named, told reporters that in light of the “ongoing instability in southwest Syria”, Israel had agreed to allow the “limited entry of the [Syrian] internal security forces into Suwayda district for the next 48 hours”.
According to Syria’s Health Ministry, the death toll from fighting in the Druze-majority city is now at least 260. An estimated 80,000 people have fled the area, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“A lot of extrajudicial killings [are] being reported,” said Vall. “People are suffering, even those who have been killed or forced to flee, they don’t have electricity, they don’t have water, because most of those services have been badly affected by the fighting.”
‘Zero-sum formula of territorial expansion and concurrent wars’
The Reuters news agency on Saturday reported that Syria’s government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country’s south this week, encouraged by US messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralised state.
Damascus believed it had a green light from both the US and Israel to dispatch its forces south to Suwayda, despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, Reuters reported, quoting several sources, including Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources.
That understanding was based on public and private comments from US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as security talks with Israel, the sources said.
Analysts say Israel’s attacks have “less to do with the minority Druze community and more with a strategic Israeli objective to create a new reality,” said Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh.
“It’s part of Israel trying to show that it is the hegemonic power in the Middle East.”
She added: “It’s a zero-sum formula of territorial expansion and concurrent wars. Endless war on Gaza, relentless attacks on Lebanon, strikes on Yemen, threats of resumed hostilities with Iran and in Syria, territorial expansion, [and] direct military intervention.
“This contradicts the Trump administration’s declared policy of seeking to expand normalisation deals with Israel in the region, which the new government in Syria had welcomed and entertained before this crisis,” said Odeh.
WASHINGTON — One of the nation’s oldest civil rights organizations on Thursday declared a “state of emergency” for antidiscrimination policies, personal freedoms and Black economic advancement in response to President Trump’s upending of civil rights precedents and the federal agencies traditionally tasked with enforcing them.
The National Urban League’s annual State of Black America report accuses the federal government of being “increasingly determined to sacrifice its founding principles” and “threatening to impose a uniform education system and a homogenous workforce that sidelines anyone who doesn’t fit a narrow, exclusionary mold,” according to a copy obtained by the Associated Press.
“If left unchecked,” the authors write, “they risk reversing decades of progress that have made America more dynamic, competitive, and just.”
Report critiques racism entering ‘mainstream’ of American politics
The report, to be released Thursday at the group’s conference in Cleveland, Ohio, criticizes the administration for downsizing federal agencies and programs that enforce civil rights policies. The authors aimed to highlight what they saw as a multiyear, coordinated effort by conservative legal activists, lawmakers and media personalities to undermine civil rights policy and create a political landscape that would enable a hard-right agenda on a range of social and economic policy.
“It is not random. It is a well-funded, well-organized, well-orchestrated movement of many, many years,” said Marc Morial, president of the Urban League. “For a long time, people saw white supremacist politics and white nationalism as on the fringe of American politics. It has now become the mainstream of the American right, whose central foundation is within the Republican Party.”
The report directly critiques Project 2025, a sweeping blueprint for conservative governance coordinated by the Heritage Foundation think tank. Project 2025 advised approaches to federal worker layoffs, immigration enforcement and the congressional and legislative branches similar to the Trump administration’s current strategy.
The Urban League report condemns major corporations, universities and top law firms for reversing diversity, equity and inclusion policies. It also criticizes social media companies like Meta and X for purported “censorship” of Black activists and creatives and content moderation policies that allegedly enabled “extremists” to spread “radicalizing” views.
Debates over civil rights enter the center of the political fray
The Trump administration has said many policies implemented by both Democratic and Republican administrations are discriminatory and unconstitutional, arguing that acknowledgments of race and federal and corporate policies that seek to address disparities between different demographics are themselves discriminatory. Trump has signed executive orders banning “illegal discrimination” and promoting “merit based opportunity.”
Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said civil rights groups that oppose the administration “aren’t advancing anything but hate and division, while the president is focused on uniting our country.”
The report, meanwhile, calls for the creation of a “new resistance” to counter the administration’s agenda. Morial urged other organizations to rally to that cause.
The Urban League and other civil rights groups have repeatedly sued the Trump administration since January. Liberal legal groups and Democratic lawmakers similarly sued over parts of the administration’s agenda.
Veteran civil rights activists, Black civic leaders, former federal officials, Illinois Atty. Gen. Kwame Raoul and seven members of Congress, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, contributed to the text.
Raoul said that civil rights allies have felt “on the defense” in recent years but that now “it’s time to act affirmatively.” For instance, if rollbacks of DEI policies result in discrimination against women or people of color, legal action could follow, he warned.
“It all depends on how they do it. We’re going to be watching,” he said. “And just because the Trump administration doesn’t believe in disparate impact anymore doesn’t mean the rest of the universe must believe that.”
The report criticizes the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter the Education Department, and denounces changes to programs meant to support communities of color at the departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development, among others. The transformation of the Justice Department’s civil rights division was singled out as “an existential threat to civil rights enforcement.”
The Justice Department pointed to its published civil rights policy and a social media post from its civil rights arm that reads the division “has returned to enforcing the law as written: fairly, equally, and without political agenda.”
Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford, a contributor to the report, said Trump “betrayed the American people” in enacting plans he said were similar to Project 2025.
Lawmakers reflect on the long fight for civil rights
Another contributor, Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said civil rights advocates and their Democratic allies must do more to communicate with and educate people.
“When you have an administration that’s willing to take civil rights gains and call it reverse racism, then there’s a lot of work to be done to unpack that for folks,” the New York Democrat said. “I think once people understand their connection to civil rights gains, then we will be in a position to build that momentum.”
The Urban League originally planned to focus its report on the legacy of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for the law’s 60th anniversary but pivoted after Trump returned to office to focus on “unpacking the threats to our democracy” and steps civil rights advocates are taking to pull the country back from “the brink of a dangerous tilt towards authoritarianism.”
For many veteran civil rights activists, the administration’s changes are condemnable but not surprising. Some lawmakers see it as a duty to continue the long struggle for civil rights.
“I think it’s all part of the same struggle,” said Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat who contributed to the report and whose father was successfully brought a wrongful-death suit against a branch of the Ku Klux Klan. “At the end of the day, that struggle boils down to: Can I be treated like everybody else in this country?”
South Africa’s Wiann Mulder declared on himself, passing up the opportunity to break Brian Lara’s record for the highest individual score in a Test innings.
Mulder, captaining South Africa for the first time, was 367 not out at lunch on the second day of the second Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.
He was 33 runs behind the 400 not out West Indies legend Lara made against England in Antigua in 2004.
The 27-year-old opted against his shot at one of Test cricket’s most iconic records, instead declaring South Africa’s first innings on 626-5.
NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani declared victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary Tuesday night after Andrew Cuomo conceded the race in a stunning upset, as the young, progressive upstart who was virtually unknown when the contest began built a substantial lead over the more experienced but scandal-scarred former governor.
Though the race’s ultimate outcome will still be decided by a ranked choice count, Mamdani took a commanding position just hours after the polls closed.
With victory all but assured, Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist who ran an energetic campaign centered on the cost of living, told supporters, “I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.”
“I will be the mayor for every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for Governor Cuomo, or felt too disillusioned by a long-broken political system to vote at all,” he said. “I will work to be a mayor you will be proud to call your own.”
Cuomo, who had been the front-runner throughout a race that was his comeback bid from a sexual harassment scandal, conceded the election, telling a crowd that he had called Mamdani to congratulate him.
“Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won,” Cuomo told supporters.
Cuomo trailed Mamdani by a significant margin in the first choice ballots and faced an exceedingly difficult pathway to catching up when ballots are redistributed in New York City’s ranked choice voting process.
Mamdani, a member of the state Assembly since 2021, would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor if elected. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams skipped the primary. He’s running as an independent in the general election. Cuomo also has the option of running in the general election.
“We are going to take a look and make some decisions,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo and Mamdani were a study in political contrasts and could have played stand-ins for the larger Democratic Party’s ideological divide, with one candidate a fresh-faced progressive and the other an older moderate.
Cuomo characterized the city as a threatening, out-of-control place desperate for an experienced leader who could restore order. He brought the power of a political dynasty to the race, securing an impressive array of endorsements from important local leaders and labor groups, all while political action committees created to support his campaign pulled in staggering sums of cash.
Mamdani, meanwhile, offered an optimistic message that life in the city could improve under his agenda, which was laser-focused on the idea that a mayor has the power to do things that lower the cost of living. The party’s progressive wing coalesced behind him and he secured endorsements from two of the country’s foremost progressives, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Unofficial results from the New York City’s Board of Elections showed that Mamdani was ranked on more ballots than Cuomo. Mamdani was listed as the second choice by tens of thousands of more voters than Cuomo. And the number of votes that will factor into ranked choice voting is sure to shrink. More than 200,000 voters only listed a first choice, the Board of Elections results show, meaning that Mamdani’s performance in the first round may ultimately be enough to clear the 50% threshold.
The race’s ultimate outcome could say something about what kind of leader Democrats are looking for during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The primary winner will go on to face incumbent Adams, a Democrat who decided to run as an independent amid a public uproar over his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent abandonment of the case by Trump’s Justice Department. Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, will be on the ballot in the fall’s general election.
The rest of the pack has struggled to gain recognition in a race where nearly every candidate has cast themselves as the person best positioned to challenge Trump’s agenda.
Comptroller Brad Lander, a liberal city government stalwart, made a splash last week when he was arrested after linking arms with a man federal agents were trying to detain at an immigration court in Manhattan. In the final weeks of the race, Lander and Mamdani cross endorsed one another in an attempt to boost their collective support and damage Cuomo’s bid under the ranked choice voting system.
Among the other candidates are City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, hedge fund executive Whitney Tilson and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Mamdani’s grassroots run has been hard not to notice.
His army of young canvassers relentlessly knocked on doors throughout the city seeking support. Posters of his grinning mug were up on shop windows. You couldn’t get on social media without seeing one of his well-produced videos pitching his vision — free buses, free child care, new apartments, a higher minimum wage and more, paid for by new taxes on rich people.
That youthful energy was apparent Tuesday evening, as both cautiously optimistic canvassers and ecstatic supporters lined the streets of Central Brooklyn on a sizzling hot summer day, creating a party-like atmosphere that spread from poll sites into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Outside his family’s Caribbean apothecary, Amani Kojo, a 23-year-old first-time voter, passed out iced tea to Mamdani canvassers, encouraging them to stay hydrated.
“It’s 100 degrees outside and it’s a vibe. New York City feels alive again,” Kojo said, raising a pile of Mamdani pamphlets. “It feels very electric seeing all the people around, the flyers, all the posts on my Instagram all day.”
Cuomo and some other Democrats have cast Mamdani as unqualified. They say he doesn’t have the management chops to wrangle the city’s sprawling bureaucracy or handle crises. Critics have also taken aim at Mamdani’s support for Palestinian human rights.
In response, Mamdani has slammed Cuomo over his sexual harassment scandal and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cuomo resigned in 2021 after a report commissioned by the state attorney general concluded that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women. He has always maintained that he didn’t intentionally harass the women, saying he had simply fallen behind what was considered appropriate workplace conduct.
Izaguirre writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.
Clashes with police have left at least one person dead and about 30 injured in a major banana-producing province.
Panama has declared a state of emergency in western Bocas del Toro province, where antigovernment protesters opposing a pension reform law are accused of setting fire to a baseball stadium and of looting businesses, including a provincial airport.
The protests that erupted two months ago in Bocas del Toro, a major banana-producing region, intensified this week, culminating in clashes with police that left one person dead and injured about 30 people, including several officers, police said on Friday.
Presidential Minister Juan Carlos Orillac said in a news conference on Friday that the move to suspend some constitutional rights and ban public gatherings would allow the government to reestablish order and “rescue” the province from “radical groups”, adding that the damage caused to public properties was “unacceptable and did not represent a legitimate protest”.
“In the face of the disruption of order and acts of systematic violence, the state will enforce its constitutional mandate to guarantee peace,” he said.
The measure will be in place for five days, he said.
The protesters, backed by unions and Indigenous groups across the country, have faced off with authorities over a pension reform law passed in March.
Confrontations have been particularly intense in Bocas del Toro, largely led by workers at a local Chiquita banana plantation. The multinational banana giant Chiquita called the workers’ strike an “unjustified abandonment of work” and sacked thousands of employees.
Those workers ultimately withdrew from the protests after they were able to negotiate the restoration of some benefits that had been removed under the March pension reform.
Still, the government has said roadblocks in Bocas del Toro have yet to be lifted, though it did not directly attribute them to the Chiquita workers.
The violence peaked in the city of Changuinola, Bocas del Toro’s main city, on Thursday when groups of hooded individuals looted businesses and partially set fire to a baseball stadium with police officers inside, authorities said.
Police said “vandals took over” the local airport, stole vehicles belonging to car rental companies, and looted an office and a warehouse containing supplies belonging to Chiquita. Flights at the airport were still suspended on Friday.
Panama’s right-wing President Jose Raul Mulino has been facing protests on several fronts in recent months.
Besides the pension reforms, Panamanians have also been in the streets over a deal Mulino struck with US President Donald Trump in April allowing US troops to deploy to Panamanian bases along the Panama Canal.
Mulino made the concession to Trump after the US leader repeatedly threatened to “take back” the US-built waterway.
Mulino has also angered environmentalists by threatening to reopen Cobre Panama, one of Central America’s biggest copper mines.
