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Nov. 4 (UPI) — British Chancellor Rachel Reeves signaled Tuesday that she was likely to raise taxes on ordinary people in her upcoming budget this month in spite of an election pledge by the Labour government it would not do so.

In a speech in Downing Street, Reeves said she would make “the choices necessary” to ensure the foundation of the economy was sufficiently strong for the government to deliver on its mandate to protect the NHS, get down the national debt and rebuild the economy.

Notably, she did not repeat the manifesto pledge the party ran on in the 2024 general election, in which it swept to power to leave untouched the three main taxes — income tax, National Insurance and VAT.

Instead, seeking to explain her actions in advance of her watershed budget, which she will deliver to Parliament on Nov. 26, she said people needed to “understand the circumstances we are facing” and that everyone needed to do their bit to rectify the situation.

“As I take my decisions on both tax and spend I will do what is necessary to protect families from high inflation and interest rates, to protect our public services from a return to austerity and to ensure that the economy that we hand down to future generations is secure, with debt under control.

“If we are to build the future of Britain together, we will all have to contribute to that effort. Each of us must do our bit for the security of our country and the brightness of its future.”

Reeves dangled the prospect of rewards down the line, stating that getting it right now would yield more resilient public finances with the headroom to withstand global shocks, which in turn would provide businesses with the confidence to invest.

She said that would in turn leave the government with more leeway to act when necessary, investing in infrastructure and industry to build a stronger economy and get down the cost of government debt, spending less on interest and more and schools and the NHS.

Reeves is betting on the budget, her second, to win the endorsement of the market for her management of the country’s finances by showing she can stick to the fiscal rules she set for herself in October 2024.

Those rules state she must balance spending with revenue — within a plus or minus margin of 0.5% of GDP — within five years, meaning no borrowing for everyday spending from the 2029-30 financial year onward. In addition, the ratio of government debt to GDP must begin falling within the same timeframe.

To do that, however, she must demonstrate how she plans to plug a fiscal hole of as much as $40 billion and boost lackluster economic growth.

The only options to close the gap and balance the books are a return to austerity — which the government has categorically ruled out — or boost the amount of money flowing into government coffers.

Reeves raised some taxes on business in her first budget in November 2024 and to come back for more after promising she would not do so, particulary when it comes to raising the basic rate of income tax — currently 20% — is very high risk, politically.

It hasn’t been done for 50 years and it didn’t work out well for then-Labour government with the country plunged into a currency crisis and forced to seek a bailout loan from the IMF.

Reeves mostly laid blame at the feet of the previous Conservative administration’s policies, including Brexit, austerity and cuts to infrastructure spending, all of which she said had led to falling productivity.

She also cited high inflation globally and economic uncertainty created by the trade tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in recent months.

Conservative shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, said it was now certain tax hikes for families and businesses were on the way.

He said that if Reeves proceeded to go back on her word, she should quit.

Daisy Cooper, Treasury spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said the government could no longer dodge responsibility.

“It’s clear that this budget will be a bitter pill to swallow as the government seems to have run out of excuses,” she said.

Imagine losing your home and belongings to a wildfire, then losing your best friend when he was killed by a suspected driver under the influence, all happening within months of each other.

Max Meier, a star defensive tackle for Loyola High who has committed to Stanford, dealt with that kind of awful adversity this year, losing his family home in the Palisades fire, then losing classmate Braun Levi in May when he was hit by a car while walking on a Manhattan Beach street.

To hear Meier’s response and wisdom while dealing with two tragedies offers hope for the future.

“I think in this life, everyone has demons in the closet,” Meier said. “Everyone has bad things that happen But we realize in these moments, as horrible as they are, losing your things in a fire, they’re replaceable, but losing someone who was like an older brother, can’t replace that. He’s somebody I’ll be be chasing to live like he did. As a teenager it was tough, but you learn about life and how every day you have to give it your all. I’ve actually started to live my life more fully and started to live every day the best I can.”

As a football player, at 6 feet 5 and 250 pounds, Meier is enjoying his best season as a senior with 9 1/2 sacks, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Loyola lost close to a dozen players who abandoned the program one by one in the offseason. They gave up, thinking the Cubs were not going to be good or leaving because they disliked something. Those who stayed had to place their trust in themselves.

“There’s no better motivator knowing every single person left and you’re the ones left,” he said. “This summer, we’re like, ‘There’s 10 games left and you’re either going to give up or let’s show everyone what we got and why they wrote us off.’ We have some problems. Every team does. We’re really motivated to show what we can do.”

Playing at SoFi Stadium on Oct 19 and coming away with a 13-10 upset victory over Gardena Serra was a moment Meier and his teammates will cherish. The Cubs lost to Bishop Amat 30-14 on Friday night and are 4-4 and 1-2 in the Mission League.

“Warming up under all those seats is just ridiculous,” he said. “I thought it was the most awesome thing. That turf was super fast. You could hear things super loud and it gave you an idea what a college stadium might feel like, I thought it was the best experience all time. It was a thing on my bucket list. Getting a sack at SoFi never thought of something I want to do, but I did it. It was cool.”

Since Meier lost his home, he was eligible to switch schools this year and play immediately. His two sisters graduated from Palisades. He has friends at Palisades. But he was never leaving Loyola.

Everyone, from parents to classmates to alumni, banded together to help those affected by the fire. They provided food, clothing and emotional support.

“After the fires, I realized how special it is,” he said. “All that’s left in my closet is from Loyola. They’re the most amazing people to me.”

So understand what you’re getting each time you face Loyola this season — a team dedicated to each other and having each other’s backs. And in Meier, the Cubs have someone who’s going to represent Loyola values for years to come.

“Breathing on this earth is a humble thing,” Meier said.

The majority of the deaths have occurred in the states of Veracruz and Hidalgo.

At least 64 people have died in Mexico after heavy rains and flooding hit five states last week.

The National Civil Protection Coordination (CNPC) chief, Laura Velazquez Alzua, speaking during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily news briefing on Monday, said another 65 people were still missing.

The state of Veracruz on the country’s southeastern coastline has confirmed 29 deaths, followed by 21 in Hidalgo, 13 in Puebla and one in Queretaro, Alzua said.

Forty-three people are also reported missing in Hidalgo, along with 18 in Veracruz and four in Puebla.

Thousands of military troops have been deployed to offer assistance across the five affected states, and governors are also working together to coordinate support, Sheinbaum said.

Early estimates show that about 100,000 houses have been affected, she added, with some near rivers having “practically disappeared”.

Facing questions about Mexico’s alert system, Sheinbaum said there were no meteorological signs “that could have indicated to us that the rain was going to be of this magnitude”.

Meteorologists have said the rains occurred thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Priscilla and Tropical Rainstorm Raymond, which caused rivers to rapidly rise, leading to flooding and landslides.

The heaviest rainfall was reported on Wednesday in Veracruz’s city of Cerro Azul and Puebla’s Cuetzalan del Progreso, which saw 280mm and 286mm of rain, respectively, Alzua said.

The Mexican Army, Air Force and National Guard have jointly implemented response efforts, distributing food and clean water, sometimes by air, to locations otherwise made inaccessible by landslides and road closures.

Nearly 400 repair workers have restored more than 80 percent of the electricity supply across the five states, where about 263,000 users lost power, electricity officials said during the briefing.

Crisis has damaged more than 16,000 homes and caused widespread electricity cuts.

Torrential flooding has continued to sweep parts of central and southeastern Mexico, raising the death toll to at least 44 people in less than a week.

Heavy downpours caused by two tropical storms have triggered landslides and flooding across five states, including Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, Queretaro and San Luis Potosi, the government said in a statement on Sunday.

Floods have killed 18 people in Veracruz state, 16 in Hidalgo, nine in Puebla and one in Queretaro, the statement said.

Mexico’s El Universal newspaper put the death toll even higher — at 48 — and reported that dozens remain missing.

Around 320,000 people have experienced power outages, and at least 16,000 homes have been damaged, according to authorities, who fear that more landslides and overflowing rivers could exacerbate the damage.

‘We will not leave anyone’

President Claudia Sheinbaum said the military has been mobilised to help with rescue operations and aid distributions. “We will not leave anyone without support,” she said in a post on X.

Photos posted by the military showed people being evacuated by soldiers with life rafts, homes flooded with mud, and rescue workers trudging through waist-high waters.

Mexico has been hit by particularly heavy rains this year, and Mexico City recorded its rainiest June in more than two decades.

Authorities have attributed the latest deadly downpours to the remnants of Hurricane Priscilla and Tropical Rainstorm Raymond, both of which dumped heavy rains on Mexico’s west.

The remnants of Raymond, with wind gusts now at 45km/hr (28mph), were expected to hit the southern part of Baja California on Sunday.

Oct. 12 (UPI) — Thousands of people in New Jersey are without power Sunday as a strong nor’easter sweeps across the region with heavy, flood-producing rains that are forecast to last into Monday morning.

Along with major coastal flooding in the region, forecasters are warning residents of the potential for wind gusts of up to 60 mph.

The state’s Jersey Shore area is a particular concern and could experience major flooding, forecasters say.

The storm system’s damaging winds will strengthen as it approaches New York, and a “High Wind Warning” has been issued for eastern Long Island and the Jersey Shore from today into Monday.

In New Jersey, forecasters say rising water could bring heavy flooding in areas along the Delaware River waterfront, Camden and Gloucester County lowlands, the Atlantic City area and in communities along Delaware Bay.

Weather forecasters warn that residents in the region could see more downed trees and wind gusts that could lead to more power outages. New York City could see wind gusts of up to 50 mph later Sunday, as well.

Philadelphia could experience moderate to major flooding in tidal zones, especially during high tides Sunday night, forecasters said.

Meanwhile, Atlantic marine conditions are forecast to be severe, with gale to storm-force winds, rough seas, and dangerous surf and rip currents along beaches.

A storm called a nor’easter is a weather system that churns along the East Coast of the United States with winds that typically come from the northeast. These storms may occur at any time of year but are most frequent and most destructive between September and April.

Authorities say they are using heavy equipment to look for the 49 people who remain missing.

The death toll from the collapse of a boarding school in Indonesia’s East Java province has risen to 14, according to officials, as rescuers battle to recover dozens of students believed still buried under the rubble.

Hundreds of students, most of them teenage boys, were inside the Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in the town of Sidoarjo when it collapsed on Monday, initially killing at least five students and injuring about 100.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto told reporters on Saturday that rescuers found nine bodies on Friday, raising the death toll to 14.

“As of today, we are still searching for 49 people who are still missing,” said Suharyanto, who goes by one name, as reported by broadcaster Kompas TV.

More victims could be found, Suharyanto said, as rescuers moved to use heavy machinery to clear locations where the victims were believed to be buried underneath the rubble.

“After the last victim was found last night, we are focusing on a massive cleanup, with heavy equipment entering the collapsed areas,” he said.

Suharyanto said victim identification had been complicated by the fact that most of the victims were under 18 and did not have government identity cards or fingerprint records.

“Some of the bodies were too badly damaged to be recognised visually,” he said.

The total number of victims recorded is 167, of which 104 have been found and are safe, said Abdul Muhari, head of the Disaster Data, Information and Communication Centre at the BNPB.

Fourteen survivors are receiving hospital treatment, while 89 have been discharged. One has been transferred to another hospital, added Muhari.

The school collapse was so violent that it sent tremors across the neighbourhood, according to residents.

Investigators have been looking into the cause of the collapse, but initial signs pointed to substandard construction, experts have said.

The rescue operation was complex because vibrations in one place could affect other areas, officials said.

But the families of the missing agreed on Thursday for heavy equipment to be used, after the 72-hour “golden period” for the best chance of survival came to an end.

The rescue operation was complicated by an earthquake that struck overnight on Tuesday, briefly halting the search.

Sept. 26 (UPI) — Core inflation stayed about the same in August, the Federal Reserve said, and personal consumption expenditures had a 0.3% gain for the month.

The personal consumption expenditures price index rise made the annual headline inflation rate 2.7%, which is the inflation over last year, the Commerce Department reported.

The core inflation rate is at 2.9%. It rose 0.2% for the month.

Meanwhile, consumer sentiment fell to 55.1, the University of Michigan said in a survey released Friday. The report was the seventh-lowest on record since 1952.

The pessimism stems from fears of higher inflation, which could get worse. On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on trucks, cabinets and pharmaceuticals.

Americans are now also becoming nervous about the labor market.

“Consumers continue to express frustration over the persistence of high prices, with 44% spontaneously mentioning that high prices are eroding their personal finances, the highest reading in a year,” Joanne Hsu, the Michigan survey’s director, said in a release.

“Interviews this month highlight the fact that consumers feel pressure both from the prospect of higher inflation as well as the risk of weaker labor markets,” she said.

Consumer spending is still going strong. Personal consumption expenditures climbed 0.6% in August from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Friday.

After adjusting for inflation, spending rose 0.4% last month. The personal saving rate, which is personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, was 4.6%.

“Recent data show consumers resumed spending over the summer, especially those with higher incomes. And why wouldn’t they? Unemployment is still low, nominal wages are still increasing and asset valuations are near all-time highs,” CNN reported Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said Friday at an event in Washington, D.C.

Stock market futures rose after the report, while Treasury yields dipped, CNBC reported.

“Net, net, consumers literally hit it out of the park with very strong gains in spending not just for August, but June and July as well,” Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds, told CNBC.

“Summer was the time for consumer revenge spending after hunkering down in retreat from the shops and malls during the uncertainty and fear produced by the White House tariff rollout in April and May.”

The scheme, which government says will curb undocumented immigration, has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum.

The United Kingdom has announced plans to introduce a digital ID scheme in a bid to curb undocumented immigration.

Announced by the government on Friday, the scheme will see the digital ID of British citizens and residents held on phones. The government said there will be no requirement for individuals to carry their ID or be asked to produce it, but that it will be “mandatory” for workers.

The UK has long resisted the idea of Identity cards, which were abolished after World War II, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is under pressure to tackle immigration that populist forces claim is uncontrolled.

The free digital ID would include a person’s name, date of birth, and photo, as well as information on their nationality and residency status.

It will be “mandatory as a means of proving your right to work”, a government statement said.

“This will stop those with no right to be here from being able to find work, curbing their prospect of earning money, one of the key ‘pull factors’ for people who come to the UK illegally,” it added.

The digital ID will also make it simpler to apply for services like driving licences, childcare and welfare, while streamlining access to tax records, the statement said.

“Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK… It will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits,” Starmer said. “It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.”

‘Digitally excluded’

The plans, which the government had previously said it was considering, drew criticism from across the political spectrum.

The centrist Liberal Democrats said they would not support mandatory digital ID where people are “forced to turn over their private data just to go about their daily lives”.

Liberal Democrats cannot support mandatory digital IDs. People shouldn’t be criminalised just because they don’t want to hand over their private data. pic.twitter.com/mEzV7s9vUf

— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) September 25, 2025

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, wrote on X that her party “will oppose any push by this organisation or the government to impose mandatory ID cards on law-abiding citizens”.

“We will not support any system that is mandatory for British people or excludes those of us who choose not to use it from any of the rights of our citizenship,” she added.

The far-right Reform UK party called the plans a “cynical ploy” designed to “fool” voters into thinking something is being done about immigration.

It also sought to tap into longstanding British suspicions regarding national ID schemes, which are common in most of Europe.

“It will make no difference to illegal immigration, but it will be used to control and penalise the rest of us,” said Reform leader Nigel Farage.

I am firmly opposed to @Keir_Starmer’s digital ID cards.

It will make no difference to illegal immigration, but it will be used to control and penalise the rest of us.

The state should never have this much power.

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) September 25, 2025

In the 2000s, the Labour Party, then led by Tony Blair, attempted to introduce an identity card, but the plan was eventually dropped by Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, after opposition called it an infringement of civil liberties.

However, with populist narratives regarding immigration now rife, the government appears to be betting that such concerns will override the longstanding opposition.

The timing of the announcement appears no coincidence, coming as Labour prepares to hold its annual conference.

A petition demanding that ID cards not be introduced had collected 575,000 signatures by early Friday, but recent polling suggests majority support for the move.

THE Chancellor has been dealt another setback after borrowing hit the highest level in five years, making Budget tax rises “inevitable”.

The Government borrowed more money than expected last month, at £18billion, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This was £3.5billion more than in August 2024.

1

The interest on Government debt soared by £1.9billion to £8.4billion, which added to higher spending on benefits and public services.

This offset any boost from the National Insurance Contributions hike, the ONS said.

It marked the highest August borrowing since 2020, significantly overshooting the £12.8billion expected by economists.

The level of government borrowing was £5.5billion higher than the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast in March.

Meanwhile, borrowing for the first five months of the financial year hit £83.8billion.

This was £16.2billion higher than the same period last year and well ahead of the OBR’s £72.4billion prediction.

Martin Beck, chief economist at WPI Strategy, said: “The £10billion buffer the Chancellor pencilled in against her key fiscal rule in March has almost certainly gone.

“That means tax rises in November look inevitable.”

James Murray, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, insisted the Government “has a plan to bring down borrowing because taxpayer money should be spent on the country’s priorities, not on debt interest”.

He added: “Our focus is on economic stability, fiscal responsibility, ripping up needless red tape, tearing out waste from our public services, driving forward reforms and putting more money in working people’s pockets.”

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

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Israeli forces have killed 53 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and levelled 16 buildings in Gaza City, including three residential towers, as they ramp up an offensive to seize the northern urban centre and displace its population.

At least 35 of the victims on Sunday were killed in Gaza City, according to medics.

Two more Palestinians also died of malnutrition in the Strip, according to its Ministry of Health, taking the death toll from hunger to 422 since the beginning of Israel’s war.

In Gaza City, the Israeli military marked the al-Kawthar tower in the southern Remal neighbourhood as a target, before launching missile strikes that destroyed the building two hours later. The relentless bombardment has forced tens of thousands to flee.

“We don’t know where to go,” said Marwan al-Safi, a displaced Palestinian. “We need a solution to this situation… We are dying here.”

The Government Media Office in Gaza condemned Israel’s “systematic bombing” of civilian buildings, saying the aim of the offensive was “extermination and forced displacement”.

In a statement, the office said that while Israel was claiming to be targeting armed groups, “the field realities prove beyond doubt” that Israeli forces were bombing “schools, mosques, hospitals and medical centres”, and destroying towns, residential buildings, tents and headquarters of various groups, including international humanitarian organisations.

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a post on X that 10 of the agency’s buildings have been hit in Gaza City in the past four days alone.

That includes seven schools and two clinics that were sheltering thousands of displaced people. “No place is safe in Gaza. No one is safe,” he wrote.

‘Nowhere in Gaza is safe’

As bombardments intensified, families were once again forced to flee south towards al-Mawasi, an area Israel has designated as a “safe zone” despite repeatedly attacking it.

Ahmed Awad told Al Jazeera that he had escaped northern Gaza on Saturday as “mortar shells rained down”. He described arriving at midnight to find “no water, no toilets, nothing. Families are sleeping in the open. The situation is extremely dire”.

Another displaced Palestinian, AbedAllah Aram, said his family faced a “severe shortage” of clean water.

“Food is scarce, and inside these tents, people are hungry and malnourished. Winter is approaching, and we urgently need new tents. On top of that, this area cannot handle more displaced families,” he said.

A third man said he has been unable to find shelter in al-Mawasi despite arriving a week ago. He described his ordeal as unbearable.

“I have a large family, including my children, mother and grandmother. Not only are missiles raining down on us, but famine is devouring us too. My family has been on a constant journey of displacement for two years. We can no longer endure the ongoing genocidal war or hunger,” he said.

“Above all, we have no source of income to feed our starving children. Displacement is as painful as eviscerating one’s soul out of the body.”

UNICEF, meanwhile, said that conditions in al-Mawasi were worsening on a daily basis.

“Nowhere in Gaza is safe, including in this so-called humanitarian zone,” Tess Ingram, the agency’s spokesperson, told Al Jazeera from al-Mawasi. “The camp is becoming more and more crowded by the day.”

She recalled meeting a woman, Seera, who had been ordered to evacuate Gaza City while pregnant. “She went into labour in Sheikh Radwan and gave birth on the side of the road while trying to find help, whilst evacuation orders were being issued for that area,” Ingram said.

“She is one of so many examples of families who have come here and now are struggling to access the basics they need to survive.”

Doha summit condemns ‘barbaric’ Israel

Meanwhile, the political fallout from Israel’s strike on Hamas negotiators in Qatar last week, which killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer, has continued.

Izzat al-Rashq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said the “war criminal Netanyahu is attempting to shift the battle to the region, seeking to redraw the Middle East and dominate it in pursuit of mythical fantasies related to ‘Greater Israel’, which places the entire region on the brink of explosion due to his extremism and recklessness.”

He said the attack on Qatari soil was meant to “destroy the negotiation process and undermine the role of our sister state, Qatar”.

At a preparatory meeting ahead of a summit on Monday in Doha, Arab and Islamic leaders discussed ways to respond.

Reuters reported that a draft resolution seen at the meeting condemned Israel’s “genocide, ethnic cleansing, starvation, siege, and colonising activities”, warning that such actions threatened peace in the region and undermined efforts to normalise ties with Arab states.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani called Israel’s attack on Doha on September 9 “barbaric” and urged fierce and firm measures in response.

Sheikh Mohammed said that Arab nations supported “lawful measures” to protect Doha’s sovereignty and called on the international community to abandon “double standards” in dealing with Israel.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that “silence and inaction” had emboldened Israel to carry out crimes “with impunity”. He called on Arab and Islamic nations to hold Israel accountable for “evidenced war crimes”, including “killing civilians, starving the population and driving an entire population homeless”.

Adnan Hayajneh, a professor of international relations at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera that the regional mood had shifted. “The US has to wake up to the fact that you’ve got 2 billion Muslims around the world insulted, and it’s only the beginning. It’s not only the attack on Qatar, it is a continuation of destabilisation of the whole region,” he said.

US-Israeli relations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that ties with the United States remained strong, despite Washington’s unease over the strike in Qatar. Hosting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that relations were “as strong and durable as the stones in the Western Wall”.

Rubio, before his departure, claimed that US President Donald Trump was “not happy” about the Israeli attack in Doha, but maintained that US-Israeli relations remained “very strong”.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said that Washington was trying to manage the fallout.

“The US is surely going to do some damage control, saying that the strikes on Doha are not going to change the relationship with Israel, but some conversations will need to be had,” she said.

Meanwhile, Israeli ministers have pledged to continue pursuing Hamas leaders abroad. Minister of Energy Eli Cohen declared, “Hamas cannot sleep peacefully anywhere in the world,” including in NATO member state Turkiye.

Another minister, Ze’ev Elkin, said: “We will pursue them and settle accounts with them, wherever they are.”

Israeli media later reported that Mossad chief David Barnea had opposed the Qatar strike, fearing it would derail ceasefire negotiations. A columnist in the Israeli newspaper Maariv wrote that Barnea believed Hamas leaders “can be eliminated at any given moment”, but had warned that attacking Doha risked torpedoing a deal to release captives Hamas had taken from Israel during its attack on October 7, 2023.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza after the Hamas attack, at least 64,871 Palestinians have been killed and 164,610 injured, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Separately, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel’s Ministry of Defence is treating about 20,000 wounded soldiers, with more than half suffering from psychological trauma and estimates suggesting that by 2028, the figure could rise to 50,000.

Stargazers enjoyed a “blood moon” during a total lunar eclipse visible across Asia, as well as swaths of Europe and Africa.

When the sun, Earth, and the moon line up, the shadow cast by the planet on its satellite makes it appear an eerie, deep red colour — an effect that has astounded humans for millennia.

People in Asia, including India and China, were best placed to see Sunday’s total eclipse, which was also visible on the eastern edge of Africa as well as in western Australia.

The total lunar eclipse lasted from 17:30 GMT to 18:52 GMT.

Stargazers in Europe also had a brief chance to see a partial eclipse just as the moon rose during the early evening, but the Americas missed out.

The moon appears red during lunar eclipses because the only sunlight reaching it is “reflected and scattered through the Earth’s atmosphere”, said Ryan Milligan, an astrophysicist at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Blue wavelengths of light are shorter than red ones, so they are more easily dispersed as they travel through Earth’s atmosphere, he told the AFP news agency.

“That’s what gives the moon its red, bloody colour.”

While special glasses or pinhole projectors are necessary to observe solar eclipses safely, all that is required to view a lunar eclipse is clear weather and a suitable spot.

The last total lunar eclipse was in March this year, while the previous one was in 2022.

Sept. 4 (UPI) — The Powerball jackpot has risen to $1.7 billion after no one matched all five numbers and the red ball on Wednesday.

Saturday’s Powerball is the third-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, falling behind the Nov. 7, 2022, jackpot of $2.04 billion and $1.765 billion on Oct. 11, 2023.

The winner will receive the option of a lump sum payment estimated at $770.3 million or 29 payments that increase by 5% each year.

Wednesday winning numbers were white balls 3, 16, 29, 61, 69 and a red Powerball 22 with a Power Play multiplier of 2.

Although there were no jackpot winners, eleven tickets matched the $1 million prize and were sold in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Four tickets won the $2 million prize in Michigan, Oregon. Texas, and Wyoming.

Also, 117 tickets won $50,000 prizes and 36 won $100,000 prizes. In total, more than 6.3 million tickets won crash prizes in Wednesday night’s drawing.

Saturday’s drawing will be the 42nd since the last jackpot was won on May 31,2025.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

A passenger bus carrying Afghan returnees from Iran struck a motorcycle and a fuel truck, triggering a huge fire.

The death toll from a bus crash in western Afghanistan has risen to 79, after two survivors died from their injuries, an interim Taliban administration official said.

The incident occurred late on Tuesday in Herat province’s Guzara district, when a passenger bus carrying Afghan returnees from Iran struck a motorcycle and a fuel truck, triggering a huge fire.

At least 19 children were among those killed, Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesman for the interim Interior Ministry, told reporters in Kabul on Wednesday.

Mohammad Janan Moqadas, chief physician at the military hospital, said many bodies were too badly burned to be identified.

A journalist with the AFP news agency reported that cleanup crews were working on Wednesday to remove the burned-out bus and the twisted wreckage of the other vehicles.

“There was a lot of fire… There was a lot of screaming, but we couldn’t even get within 50 metres to rescue anyone,” witness Akbar Tawakoli, 34, told AFP. “Only three people were saved from the bus. They were also on fire and their clothes were burned.”

Abdullah, 25, another witness, told AFP, “I was very saddened that most of the passengers on the bus were children and women.”

The bus was transporting Afghans recently expelled from Iran to the capital, Kabul, provincial spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi said. The central government has ordered an investigation.

“It is with deep sorrow that we mourn the loss of numerous Afghan lives and the injuries sustained in a tragic bus collision and subsequent fire in Herat province last night,” it said in a statement.

More than 1.5 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan this year alone, according to the United Nations migration agency, as both countries step up deportations after decades of hosting Afghan refugees. Many arrive with little means and face dire conditions in a country battling poverty and mass unemployment.

The state-run Bakhtar News Agency described the incident as one of Afghanistan’s deadliest accidents in recent years.

In December 2023, two separate bus crashes involving tankers killed 52 people, while in March 2024, another 20 died in a collision in Helmand province. In late 2022, a tanker overturned in the Salang Pass, igniting a fire that killed 31.

The addition of girls flag football is helping fuel rising participation in high school sports nationally, with a record 8,260,891 boys and girls having participated in the last school year, according to the annual survey from the National Federation of State High School Assns. released on Monday.

There were 68,847 girls playing flag football, a 60% increase from the previous year.

Girls sports led the increases, including wrestling rising 15%.

Football remains the most popular boys sports at 1,001,039. Track and field tops girls sports at 513,808.

Girls flag football has been rising in popularity in Southern California. In the Los Angeles City Section, there are now more flag football teams (91) than 11-man football teams (71).

Israeli attacks have killed at least 39 people, including 21 seeking humanitarian aid and 11 who starved to death, over 24 hours in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that the total number of malnutrition deaths has reached 212, including 98 children, since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.

Most of the deaths have occurred in recent weeks as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on aid supplies entering Gaza after partially lifting a total blockade in late May.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told Al Jazeera that famine continues to pose a serious risk “especially among children and the elderly”.

“Malnutrition among children leads to decreased immunity and may lead to death,” he said.

On Friday, the World Food Programme (WFP) called on Israel to allow the delivery of at least 100 aid trucks per day to Gaza, noting that only 60 of its aid truck drivers have been vetted and approved by the Israeli military to date.

The 100 trucks per day the organisation called for is a fraction of the 600 per day other United Nations agencies and Gaza authorities have said are needed to meet the basic needs of Gaza residents.

“Since July 27, 266 WFP trucks arriving at crossing points were turned back, 31 percent of which had initially been approved,” the agency’s latest report said.

“Convoy movements are frequently hampered by last-minute changes by Israeli authorities, and heavy insecurity due to military activities along convoy routes.”

In its latest statement on Saturday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, noted that it has not been allowed to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, including food and medicine, for more than five months, depriving hungry and ailing Palestinians of what they need to survive.

UNRWA has been calling on Israel to lift its siege on Gaza, saying the ongoing airdrops of humanitarian aid from several countries “are very expensive and ineffective” at reaching those urgently in need.

The warnings come as Israeli forces continued to escalate their attacks across the territory. Six people were killed by Israeli soldiers while waiting for aid near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Two other Palestinians were also killed and transported to the Nasser Medical Complex from a GHF aid distribution site in the southern part of the territory.

One woman was killed and another person was wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting an apartment in Khan Younis in the south.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry’s latest count, at least 39 people have been killed in 24 hours.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,369 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 152,850. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.

‘No one and nowhere is safe’

As the death toll continues to soar, international condemnation of Israel’s conduct in the war is growing, with several countries raising alarm over Israel’s plans to seize Gaza City in an operation that could forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to concentration zones in southern Gaza.

A rare emergency UN Security Council meeting has been scheduled on Sunday to address the plan approved by Israel’s security cabinet this week.

In Gaza City, residents were defiant, promising not to leave in the event of a new Israeli ground offensive.

Umm Imran told Al Jazeera that there was nowhere safe in Gaza.

“They say go south, go to al-Mawasi, but there is nowhere safe any more – north, south, east or west. No one and nowhere is safe. We will stay here.”

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said residents were unable to sleep on Friday night after the announcement by Israel.

“People are wondering what’s going to happen to them, what’s going to be left of Gaza if Israel moves on with its approved plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City,” he said.

The Israeli plan has also been condemned by the foreign ministers of Australia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the diplomats warned that Israel’s plan will “aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”.

“Any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also urged Muslim nations to work in unison to oppose Israel’s plan.

Speaking at a joint news conference in El Alamein with his Egyptian counterpart after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Fidan said members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had been called to an emergency meeting to tackle the crisis.

Global hunger fell in 2024 for a third straight year, but conflict and climate shocks deepened crises in Africa and the Middle East.

Global hunger levels declined for a third consecutive year in 2024, according to a new United Nations report, as better access to food in South America and India offset deepening malnutrition and climate shocks in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Around 673 million people, or 8.2 percent of the world’s population, experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5 percent in 2023, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, jointly prepared by five UN agencies.

The agencies include the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

The agencies said the report focused on chronic, long-term problems and did not fully reflect the impact of acute crises brought on by specific events and wars, including Israel’s war on Gaza.

“Conflict continues to drive hunger from Gaza to Sudan and beyond,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks delivered by video link from a UN food summit in Ethiopia on Monday, adding that “hunger further feeds future instability and undermines peace”.

The WHO has warned that malnutrition in the besieged Palestinian enclave has reached “alarming levels” since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2.

The blockade was partially lifted in May, but only a trickle of aid has been allowed to enter since then, despite warnings about mass starvation from the UN and aid organisations.

Hunger rate falls in South America, southern Asia

In 2024, the most significant progress was reported in South America and southern Asia, according to the UN report.

In South America, the hunger rate fell to 3.8 percent in 2024 from 4.2 percent in 2023. In southern Asia, it fell to 11 percent from 12.2 percent.

Progress in South America was underpinned by improved agricultural productivity and social programmes, such as school meals, Maximo Torero, the chief economist at the FAO, told news agency Reuters.

In southern Asia, it was mostly due to new data from India showing more people with access to healthy diets.

The overall 2024 hunger numbers were still higher than the 7.5 percent recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hunger more prevalent in Africa

The picture was very different in Africa, where productivity gains were not keeping up with high population growth and the impacts of conflict, extreme weather and inflation.

In 2024, more than one in five people on the continent, or 307 million people, were chronically undernourished, meaning hunger is more prevalent than it was 20 years ago.

According to the current projection, 512 million people in the world may be chronically undernourished in 2030, with nearly 60 percent of them to be found in Africa, the report said.

“We must urgently reverse this trajectory,” said the FAO’s Torero.

A major mark of distress is the number of Africans unable to afford a healthy diet. While the global figure fell from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.6 billion in 2024, the number increased in Africa from 864 million to just over one billion during the same period.

That means the vast majority of Africans are unable to eat well on the continent of 1.5 billion people.

Inequalities

The UN report also highlighted “persistent inequalities” with women and rural communities most affected, which widened last year over 2023.

“Despite adequate global food production, millions of people go hungry or are malnourished because safe and nutritious food is not available, not accessible or, more often, not affordable,” it said.

The gap between global food price inflation and overall inflation peaked in January 2023, driving up the cost of diets and hitting low-income nations hardest, the report said.

The report also said that overall adult obesity rose to nearly 16 percent in 2022, from 12 percent in 2012.

Escalation of military exchanges could move towards war, Acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai says.

The death toll from clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops has risen to 15 in Thailand and one in Cambodia, according to authorities, as more than 120,000 people living along both sides of the border separating the two countries flee the ongoing fighting.

Deadly fighting continued for a second day on Friday as both countries traded heavy artillery and rocket fire, the bloodiest military confrontation between the two Southeast Asian neighbours in more than a decade.

The escalation of military exchanges could move towards war, Acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters on Friday. For now, the clashes have involved heavy weapons, he added.

The ongoing clashes have taken place in 12 locations along the disputed border, up from six the day before, a Thai military official said on Friday, indicating a widening of the fighting. Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a military spokesperson, told a press conference Cambodia had continued to use heavy weapons.

“Thai forces have responded with appropriate supporting fire in accordance with the tactical situation,” the Thai military said in an earlier statement.

Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health reported that at least 14 civilians and one soldier were killed in Thailand when fighting broke out on Thursday, and a local provincial official in Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey border province told the Reuters news agency that one person was killed and five wounded in Thai attacks.

More than 30 Thai civilians and 15 soldiers were also injured, according to Thailand’s Health Ministry, while some 100,672 people from four Thai provinces bordering Cambodia have been moved to shelters, Thailand’s Ministry of Interior was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Arsit Sampantharat, the Thai Interior Ministry’s permanent secretary, was quoted by the country’s Channel 3 television channel as saying that more than half of those evacuated were from Surin province, while the rest were from the provinces of Sisaket, Buriram and Ubon Ratchathani.

Citing officials in Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, the Khmer Times news organisation said that about 20,000 residents have evacuated from the country’s northern border with Thailand.

Shelling from Thailand was also reported before dawn on Friday, the Khmer Times quoted the Cambodian military as saying.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts claimed that Thailand’s strikes had caused “substantial damage” to the Preah Vihear temple, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, according to The Phnom Penh Post.

Diplomatic sources told the AFP news agency that the United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the border fighting.

On Thursday, Thailand said it scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to bomb targets in Cambodia, while Cambodian forces launched long-range rockets towards civilian areas along the Thai border, Thailand’s military said.

Both countries have blamed each other for starting the clashes in a disputed area of the border, which quickly escalated from small arms fire to heavy shelling.

The United States, a longtime treaty ally of Thailand, has called for an immediate end to the hostilities.

China, a close ally of Cambodia, said it was deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict and hoped that both countries “will properly solve their dispute through dialogue and consultation”.

At least 62 people have been killed, including 19 who were seeking aid, in Israeli attacks across Gaza, hospital sources told Al Jazeera, and two people died from malnutrition amid growing international outrage over Israel’s conduct in the war.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that at least 115 Palestinians have starved to death in the enclave since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. Most of the deaths, which include many children, have been in recent weeks.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza in March and has only allowed a trickle of aid into the territory since late May, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of mass starvation.

In a statement on Thursday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that “families are breaking down” amid the hunger crisis.

“Parents are too hungry to care for their children,” agency head Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X. “Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food or means to follow medical advice”.

The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, added that Israel has been preventing it from verifying aid waiting at distribution centres.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the situation was deteriorating, with Palestinians clamouring for any aid they can find.

“Enforced starvation, enforced dehydration, and hunger are gripping the Gaza Strip, with more people reported with malnutrition and a severe, acute shortage of food supplies and other basic necessities,” he said.

“According to what we hear from health sources, people’s immune systems are falling apart. They’re unable to fight the many diseases that are spreading because their bodies are unable to fight,” he said.

With dire conditions on the ground largely unchanged, international condemnation has continued to grow.

On Thursday, more than 60 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) demanded an emergency meeting to push actions against Israel in a letter sent to European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Lynn Boylan, an Irish member of the European Parliament, accused EU leaders of a double standard when it comes to Palestinian lives.

“Clearly, Palestinian lives are not seen by the elite in the EU as equivalent to, for example, Ukrainian lives,” Boylan told Al Jazeera.

“There’s a chilling effect, that if you dare to speak up against Israel, if you dare to call out the war crimes that you’re witnessing, there is immediately a backlash and an attack,” she said.

Outrage among European leaders has also soared in recent days, with 28 countries earlier this week condemning the aid blockade, while calling for an immediate end to the fighting.

On Thursday, the United Kingdom’s government announced Prime Minister Keir Starmer would hold a call with his German and French counterparts, to “discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need”.

Breakdown in talks

As the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to spiral, negotiations to end the war again broke down, with US envoy Steve Witkoff announcing that his team was leaving negotiations in Qatar early.

That came shortly after Israel announced it was withdrawing its delegation from the talks.

In a statement, Witkoff accused Hamas of showing “a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire”.

“We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” Witkoff said, without elaborating.

Hamas, which has repeatedly accused Israel of blocking a ceasefire agreement, said it was surprised by Witkoff’s remarks.

“The movement affirms its keenness to continue negotiations and engage in them in a manner that helps overcome obstacles and leads to a permanent ceasefire agreement,” said Hamas in a statement released late on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has continued to push for a deal, while simultaneously supporting the displacement of Palestinians from the enclave to nearby countries, in what would potentially constitute ethnic cleansing.

France to recognise Palestine

Late on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would officially recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Macron said the decision was “in keeping with [France’s] historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.

The move will make France the largest and arguably most influential country in Europe to recognise a Palestinian state.

The move was hailed by the deputy of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who said it showed France’s “commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state”.

Israeli officials swiftly condemned the move, with Defence Minister Israel Katz calling it a “disgrace and a surrender to terrorism”.

“We will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian entity that would harm our security, endanger our existence, and undermine our historical right to the Land of Israel,” he said.