suffer

Aid agencies are in “a race against time” to get food and other humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip, a United Nations official has warned, as Israeli restrictions continue to impede deliveries across the bombarded enclave.

Speaking during a news briefing on Tuesday, a senior spokesperson for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) noted that aid deliveries have increased since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect last month.

But only two crossings into Gaza are open, which “severely limits the quantity of aid” that the WFP and other agencies can bring in, said Abeer Etefa.

“We need full access. We need everything to be moving fast. We are in a race against time. The winter months are coming. People are still suffering from hunger, and the needs are overwhelming,” she said.

WFP, which currently operates 44 food distribution points across Gaza, said it has provided food parcels to more than one million Palestinians in the territory since the ceasefire began on October 10.

But Etefa told reporters that the amount of food getting into Gaza remains insufficient, and reaching northern Gaza, where the world’s top hunger monitor confirmed famine conditions in August, remains a challenge.

“A major obstacle is the continued closure of the northern crossings into the Gaza Strip. Aid convoys are obliged to follow a slow, difficult route from the south,” she said.

“To deliver at scale, WFP needs all crossings to be open, especially those in the north. Full access to key roads across Gaza is also critical to allow food to be transported quickly and efficiently to where it is needed.”

Thousands of Palestinians have returned to their homes in Gaza’s north in recent weeks as the Israeli army withdrew to the so-called “yellow line” as part of the ceasefire agreement.

But most found their homes and neighbourhoods completely destroyed as a result of Israel’s two-year bombardment. Many families remain displaced and have been forced to live in tents and other makeshift shelters.

Khalid al-Dahdouh, a Palestinian father of five, returned to Gaza City to find his house in ruins. He has since built his family a small shelter, using bricks salvaged from the rubble and held together with mud.

“We tried to rebuild because winter is coming,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We don’t have tents or anything else, so we built a primitive structure out of mud since there is no cement … It protects us from the cold, insects and rain – unlike the tents.”

The UN and other aid agencies have been urging Israel to allow more supplies into the Strip, as outlined in the ceasefire agreement, particularly as Palestinians are set to face harsh conditions during the colder winter months.

On Saturday, Gaza’s Government Media Office said that 3,203 commercial and aid trucks brought supplies into Gaza between October 10 and 31, an average of 145 aid trucks per day, or just 24 percent of the 600 trucks that are meant to be entering daily as part of the deal.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army has continued to carry out attacks on Gaza, as well as demolishing homes and other structures.

One person was killed and another wounded on Tuesday after an Israeli quadcopter opened fire in the Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City. A source at al-Ahli Arab Hospital also told Al Jazeera that a person was killed by Israeli army fire in northern Gaza’s Jabalia.

At least 240 Palestinians have been killed and 607 others wounded in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire came into effect, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Israeli leaders have rejected criticism of those attacks and of continued restrictions on humanitarian aid, accusing Hamas of breaching the deal by not releasing all the bodies of deceased Israeli captives from the territory.

On Tuesday, Israel said it received the remains of an Israeli captive after Hamas handed them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Russia’s atomic energy agency said a Ukrainian drone struck a cooling tower of the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant (NNPP), located about 100 miles north of the border. While officials say there was no substantial damage to the plant, it was the fourth nuclear power facility in the region to have munitions land on or very close to it in the past two weeks.

Regardless of the level of damage incurred at NNPP, Russia is worried enough about drone strikes on its nuclear facilities that it is beefing up its defenses at a test site in the Arctic. You can read more about that later in this story.

The NNPP cooling tower was hit by a drone flying near the plant that was downed by electronic warfare, Russia’s Rosenergoatom claimed on Telegram. As a result, the agency said it hit the cooling tower of the No. 6 reactor and exploded upon impact. These structures are generally built to withstand light aircraft impacts.

“There is no destruction or casualties; however, a dark mark remained on the cooling tower from the consequences of the detonation,” Rosenergoatom stated. “The safety of the nuclear power plant operation is ensured, the radiation background at the industrial site of the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant and the adjacent territory has not changed and corresponds to natural background levels. Law enforcement agencies are working at the scene.”

The reactor is working and producing the planned 1,139 MW electricity output, according to Rosenergoatom. Three other units are also still working, while a fourth is shut down for routine maintenance.

“As a result of a detailed inspection of the cooling tower attacked by the UAV, NNPP specialists found no damage affecting the load-bearing capacity of the structure and the operability of the cooling tower,” the agency added.

Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on this incident, which took place as Kyiv’s drones frequently attack the Voronezh region. Despite Ukraine’s ongoing campaign against energy facilities in Russia, it is quite likely that this strike was inadvertent. Kyiv has been attacking oil and gas plants, not nuclear ones, though Russia claims it downed a drone in August that caused a fire and temporarily reduced the electrical output at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. However, we can’t tell for sure if either of these strikes was deliberate or not. Russia frequently blames damage from drone strikes on electronic warfare or air defense shootdowns, even if an intended target was hit.

It is also possible that the damage at NNPP was caused by Russian air defenses. These systems can fail, as you can see in the following video. Russia has also claimed that damage caused by failed air defenses was caused by enemy munitions in the past.

Regardless, as Ukraine develops newer long-range weapons with far larger warheads, even an accidental strike on one of these sites could have far greater consequences. You can read more about one of Ukraine’s newest long-range weapons in our story we published today here.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has yet to comment, but has expressed high concern about drones flying near the South (SNPP) and Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). 

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi issued warnings about ZNPP. That plant has been operating on backup diesel fuel generators since Sept. 23, after power lines were downed. Ukrainian officials claim Russia cut the lines on purpose, which Russia denies. ZNPP is inactive; however, pumps are needed to keep water cooling reactors so they don’t melt down. The power outage is the longest experienced by ZNPP during this conflict, Grossi stated.

Regardless of who cut the lines, munitions are dropping close to the plant, which Russia occupied in the early days of the war.

The IAEA team at ZNPP “today heard multiple rounds of incoming and outgoing shelling, adding to nuclear safety risks at a time when the plant has been without off-site power for nearly two weeks,” Grossi said in a statement on Monday. “The shelling occurred between [2:05 pm and 3:30 pm] local time, totalling about 15 rounds at near and middle distance from the site, the team reported. Some explosions triggered car alarms.”

Around the same time, “the ZNPP informed the IAEA team that two rounds of shelling struck around 1.25 km (about three-quarters of a mile) from the site perimeter, in the vicinity of a fire extinguisher charging station. No casualties were reported and there was no immediate information about any damage.”

“The nuclear safety and security situation is clearly not improving,” Grossi cautioned. “On the contrary, the risks are growing. The plant has now been without off-site power for almost two weeks, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators for the electricity it needs to cool its shutdown reactors and spent fuel. This is an extraordinarily challenging situation.”

The massive atomic energy plant in Zaporizhzhia has been a continuous cause for major concern since not long after the war broke out. In March 2022, there was global alarm after Russia shelled a building on the site of ZNPP that sparked a fire and global concerns about potential radiation leaks. The following video shows scenes from that incident.

Fortunately, the reactors were undamaged and no radiation was released.

On Sept. 25, a drone was downed and detonated about a half mile from SNPP in Ukraine, according to the IAEA. SNPP, still active, is located about 150 miles from the front lines in Ukraine’s south-central Mykolaiv region. 

While there was no effect on the plant operations and no casualties, Grossi described the incident as another “close call.”

“The team was informed by the plant that 22 unmanned aerial vehicles were observed late last night and early this morning within its monitoring zone, some coming as close as half a kilometer from the site,” IAEA reported. “South Ukraine is one of the country’s three operational nuclear power plants (NPPs), its three reactors currently generating electricity at full capacity.”

From their accommodation near the plant, IAEA team members heard gunfire and explosions around 1 am local time. When they visited the location where one of the drones landed, they observed a crater measuring four square meters (about 43 square feet) at the surface and with a depth of around one meter (about 3 feet).

Nearby metal structures had been hit by shrapnel and the windows of vehicles close to the impact area were shattered, the team reported. A 150 kilovolt (kV) regional power line was also damaged, the plant said, though it was not connected to SNPP.

“Once again, drones are flying far too close to nuclear power plants, putting nuclear safety at risk,” Grossi said at the time. “Fortunately, last night’s incident did not result in any damage to the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant itself. Next time we may not be so lucky. I continue to urge both sides to show maximum military restraint around all important nuclear facilities.”

Last month, the defunct Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant lost power for five days after what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed was a drone strike on a nearby energy substation stopped the flow of electricity to a containment structure. Russian officials again denied any involvement. Power was ultimately restored five days later. 

Earlier this year, the containment structures at Chernobyl, shuttered since the 1986 disaster, were damaged by a Russian drone in February. You can see video and images of that incident below. There have been concerns about attacks there since the all-out Russian invasion. Moscow’s forces captured CNPP on the first day of the war as they pushed through the Exclusion Zone surrounding the plant in their initial thrust.

While there was little damage caused at the NNPP, Russian officials are concerned enough about drone strikes, both from near and far, on their nuclear facilities to add new layers of protection. Satellite imagery published by the Barents Observer shows that the Russians have installed so-called metal cope cages on fuel tanks at the Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site, more than 1,500 miles north of Ukraine. In 1961, the world’s largest nuclear bomb, the so-called Tsar Bomba, was dropped over the site.

Barcelona’s unexpected loss to Sevilla drops the Spanish champions two points behind Real Madrid on La Liga ladder.

Sevilla thrashed Barcelona 4-1 on Sunday, ending the champions’ unbeaten start in La Liga and denying them an opportunity to return to the top of the table.

The Andalusian club’s first league win over Barcelona since 2015 lifted them to sixth in the standings with 13 points from eight matches. Barcelona remained second with 19 points, two below leaders Real Madrid.

“It’s one of the happiest days of my life. We deserved to win from start to finish,” said Jose Angel Carmona, who scored Sevilla’s third goal.

Barcelona made a muted start and had no shots on target in the first half an hour, while Sevilla probed early on, looking to unleash Alexis Sanchez with long balls.

Sevilla took the lead in the 13th minute, after Isaac Romero went down while jostling for the ball with Ronald Araujo near Barcelona’s six-yard box, and the referee awarded a penalty to Sevilla after taking a look at the VAR replay.

Sanchez sent former Arsenal teammate Wojciech Szczesny the wrong way to convert the spot kick.

Szczesny stopped Sevilla from doubling their lead in the 27th minute, saving Romero’s shot from inside the box.

Romero, however, doubled Sevilla’s lead 10 minutes later, as Ruben Vargas sprinted past Barcelona’s high defensive line to chase down a through ball near the box, and crossed to the Spanish forward who dispatched a first-time finish.

Marcus Rashford reduced the deficit for Barcelona late in added time before the break, hammering Pedri’s lobbed pass into the net from a tight angle with his left foot.

Lewandowski misses penalty

Barcelona pushed forward in the second half and were handed an opportunity to equalise when Adnan Januzaj brought down Alejandro Balde in the box, but Robert Lewandowski fired wide from the penalty spot in the 76th minute.

The visitors’ hopes of salvaging a point ended in the 90th minute when Carmona shot through a defender’s legs to find the net and put Sevilla 3-1 ahead.

Second-half substitute Akor Adams made it 4-1 five minutes into added time, scoring from Chidera Ejuke’s pass.

“We lacked intensity, we couldn’t get the ball out of our half, we didn’t know what to do with the ball … we were never at our best,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri said.

“We need to improve a lot of things so that we can start winning games again after the break.”

Sevilla, who have won two games in a row, will continue their league campaign after the international break against Mallorca on October 18, the same day Barcelona host Girona.

EUROPE were forced to make a late change to the line-up for Saturday’s foursomes after an injury concern.

Tyrrell Hatton was drafted in as a replacement by captain European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald.

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The 33-year-old took part in the final game of Saturday afternoon alongside Matt Fitzpatrick.

He replaced Viktor Hovland, who suffered a neck injury.

Hovland played in the morning foursomes on Saturday as Europe extended their lead.

But his withdrawal was announced just minutes before the fourth and final Saturday afternoon tee off.

More to follow… For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.

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World number one Judd Trump slipped to a 4-3 defeat against Elliot Slessor, while Shaun Murphy lost by the same score to Jackson Page in the fifth round of the English Open.

Slessor, ranked 23rd in the world, opened up a 2-0 lead in Thursday’s afternoon session at the Brentwood Centre, helped by a break of 67.

Trump, who is yet to reach a semi-final this season, responded with two half-centuries as he reeled off the next three frames.

However, Slessor compiled a break of 79 to force a decider and booked his quarter-final place against either Mark Allen or Ding Junhui with a run of 64.

Meanwhile, reigning Masters champion Murphy knocked in breaks of 93 and 102 as he fought back from 3-1 down to 3-3 against Page.

While both players had opportunities in the seventh frame, Welshman Page held his nerve to seal victory and will now face Wu Yize or Mark Selby.

China’s Zhou Yuelong also made it into the last eight after breaks of 84 and 71 helped him see off Barry Hawkins 4-2.

The analysis looked at departure data for six of the biggest airlines – British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, Tui and Wizz Air – between May 2024 and April 2025. They show that all of the airlines were less punctual now than before the pandemic in 2019

The worst offending airlines for delays have been revealed amid an industry-wide slipping of standards.

Take-offs within 15 minutes of planned departure times are down significantly pre-Covid compared to now for almost all major airlines flying through UK airspace, according to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data.

There are several factors in play, including a rise in the number of flights taking off, airspace restrictions as a result of military conflicts and issues with air traffic control (ATC) staffing.

Which? studied checked departure data for six of the biggest airlines – British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, Tui and Wizz Air – between May 2024 and April 2025. They show that all of the airlines were less punctual now than before the pandemic in 2019.

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Out of the six big UK airlines, Tui was the worst for punctuality according to the analysis, with the lowest average percentage of on-time departures. Back in 2019, an average of 67.2 per cent of Tui’s departures were on time, but by 2024–25, that had slipped to 59.2 per cent.

Second-worst for punctuality for the time period Which? looked at was Wizz Air. Its average on-time rate was already as low as 66.8 per cent back in 2019, and by 2023 it had plummeted to 55.6 per cent. In 2024–25 it now has fewer delays with 66 per cent, almost back to its pre-pandemic level.

It’s a similar story for Ryanair, whose average on-time departures were at 77.8 per cent in 2019 but fell to 63 per cent by 2022, only recovering to 66.5 per cent by 2024–25.

easyJet’s punctuality was 70.6 per cent in 2019 but dropped to 67.8 per cent in 2024–25, while the CAA data also showed a decline in Jet2’s punctuality. In 2019 departures punctuality was 81.8 per cent, and in 2024–25 was 68 per cent.

British Airways’ punctuality was at 71.5 per cent in 2019, and as high as 75.8 per cent the year before. By 2024–25 it had fallen to 68.7 per cent.

Some airlines are blaming air traffic control (ATC) for these delays. In May, Ryanair launched a website called ‘Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight’, along with a ‘League of Delays’ claiming to expose the worst ATCs across Europe for delays ‘due to mismanagement and staff shortages from January to May 2025’.

Eurocontrol, which speaks for the European network of air traffic controllers, admitted that in some parts of the network, the number of ATC officers is 10–20 per cent lower than would be needed to manage the demand.

The UK’s own ATC body, NATS (formerly known as National Air Traffic Services), said that it is “fully staffed and operating normally”.

Any other air traffic control delays are only exacerbated by other factors at play. Some parts of the airspace, through which major airlines fly, are closed off for military or geopolitical reasons.

Eurocontrol has said that the crisis in the Middle East has led to traffic becoming unevenly spread – after already losing 20 per cent of airspace following the war in Ukraine. Those complexities add to an already expanding ATC workload. Airport capacity is another issue.

And while delays are worsening, airlines are putting on record numbers of flights. Although Ryanair hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels of punctuality, it scheduled 162,411 flights in 2024, according to CAA data – 24,192 more than in 2019. Wizz Air put on 29,325 flights in 2024, up 3,534 from the 25,791 it flew in 2019.

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “easyJet always does all possible to get our customers to their destinations on time and minimise any delays despite flying in some of the most congested airspace in the world.”

A spokesperson for Tui said: “Punctuality is super important to us and has highest priority but there is one topic even more important: to operate each and every flight and to not cancel any flight. That’s what we do at TUI because we have holidaymakers onboard which we want to fly to their destination and also back.

“So, sometimes we have flights delayed by a couple of hours because we need to get a replacement aircraft ready. But for guests the good news is: their flight isn’t cancelled and they can still fly. Other airlines have or use the possibility to cancel flights which then would also not be part of the delay statistics anymore.

“And, one important point: within our overall fleet of 130 airplanes we have about 11 spare airplanes – the highest number we ever had and which helps us to keep a network alive without cancellations.

“So yes we want to be more punctual but we also keep our credo to never cancel, which is the even more important topic for our holiday guests.”

A spokesperson for Wizz Air said: “At Wizz Air, every minute matters, and that’s why we are committed to ensuring our customers reach their destinations as smoothly and as promptly as possible. Some delays are outside of our control, and we do whatever we can to avoid cancellations. Our completion rate (meaning completing the flights we schedule) was one of the best in the entire industry in 2024 at 99.4% – and that has increased to 99.9% for flights from the UK between January and April this year. While we know delays are frustrating and we always try our best to avoid them, we would rather delay than cancel a flight, as we know how important it is for our passengers to reach their destinations.

“Our on-time performance (flights arriving when they are scheduled to) continues to improve. From 2022 to 2024, our on-time performance for flights from the UK improved by more than 20%. We were also named the UK’s second-most punctual airline in Cirium’s 2024 On-Time Performance Review, achieving a 70.54% on-time arrival record. The percentage of delayed flights is also decreasing year-on-year. In particular, longer delays are a rare occurrence, with just 1% of flights from the UK in 2025* delayed for three hours or more.

“The facts speak for themselves, and this progress reflects the effort and investment we have made in improving our service, which is a daily focus for us. But we know there is more work to be done. Punctuality is a key priority of our Customer First Compass – a £12 billion framework to ensure we can deliver the best possible service for our customers. As part of this, we are enhancing the resilience of our operations to minimise cancellations, reduce delays and provide fast solutions in the event of a disruption.”

British Airways and Ryanair did not comment.

BUKAYO SAKA and Martin Odegaard’s are doubts for Liverpool after hobbling off against Leeds.

Both players were struck down with injuries either side of half-time.

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Captain Odegaard fell awkwardly under a challenge and appeared to hurt his shoulder.

He initially continued but was hauled off after a few minutes and replaced by Ethan Nwaneri.

Arsenal were 1-0 ahead at the time and did not take long to add another, Saka firing past the keeper shortly after Odegaard went off.

But the Gunners talisman also picked up an injury, lasting just eight minutes into the second half.

Saka appeared to suffer a hamstring injury and he received treatment before hobbling off.

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Speaking about the impact the abuse had on her, Carter said: “It makes you feel really small. It makes you feel like you’re not important, that you’re not valuable.

“It makes you second guess everything that you do – it’s not a nice place to be. It doesn’t make me feel confident going back on to the pitch. My family was so devastated by it as well and so sad.”

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said during the tournament that the governing body had referred the “abhorrent” abuse to UK police.

Carter stepped back from social media following the abuse, though she said the support received from the England fans “meant everything”.

The England team decided to stop taking the knee before matches, with manager Sarina Wiegman saying the impact of the anti-racism gesture was “not good enough”.

Carter said the psychological impact of the abuse she suffered made her feel “scared” when Wiegman told her she had been selected to play in the final.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been scared – too scared to play,” she added.

“I think it was a mixture of such a big game, but then on top of that [I was] scared of whatever abuse might come with it, whether it’s football based or whether it was going to be the racial abuse that was going to come with it because I did something wrong.”

Fiji: Rayasi, Ravouvou, Maqala, Tuisova, Wainiqolo; Muntz, Kuruvoli; Mawi, Ikanivere (c), Doge, Nasilasila, Mayanavanua, Tagitagivalu, Canakaivata, Mata.

Replacements: Matavesi, Hetet, Tawake, Vocevoce, Tuisue, Wye, Armstrong-Ravula, Botitu.

Scotland: Rowe, Graham, Redpath, Jordan, Steyn; Burke, Dobie; Sutherland, Ashman, Millar Mills, Sykes, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Darge (c), M Fagerson.

Replacements: Turner, Hepburn, Hurd, Williamson, Bayliss, Horne, Hastings, Smith.

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said on Monday it has been “impossible” to organise normal training sessions amid a “code red” severe heat warning in Philadelphia.

A heat wave across eastern North America has seen people hospitalised with heat-related illnesses and weather warnings covering an area affecting 160m people.

Heat concerns have been raised by other managers at the Club World Cup, while campaign group Fossil Free Football has warned of players being put at risk by competing in such conditions.

Governing body Fifa has said “the health of everyone involved in football” is its “top priority”, with its medical experts in regular contact with the clubs taking part.

Additional cooling breaks have been introduced in games.

Both City and Juventus have already qualified for the last-16 stage of the competition with two victories apiece, but the Serie A side sit top by virtue of one more goal scored.

Their finishing positions in Group G will be important heading into the knockout stages as one of the sides will next come up against La Liga giants Real Madrid.

After the opening game win over Wydad AC, Guardiola played an entirely different starting XI in the second match against Al Ain and says he will ring the changes once more.

City will be without midfielder Claudio Echeverri, who is expected to miss two to three weeks after sustaining an ankle injury in the previous game, while defender Rico Lewis is suspended.

The Spaniard said: “We will play new players and in the next game too and in the second half. The selection has that in mind.

“In these conditions we are not ready to play 90 minutes and at half-time we will make substitutions.”

There has been criticism about large banks of empty seats in stadiums during the group stages of the Fifa tournament.

This match is being held at the exposed 60,000-capacity venue which offers little cover for spectators in the stands.

“Two big clubs and hopefully there will be people,” said Guardiola. “Last 16, quarter-finals, semi-final, final – hopefully the stadiums will be full.

“But 70,000, 80,000 – it is not easy to hold the crowd. Hopefully we can do a good game and the people can come.

“Bring water, hats, towels on the necks – it will be tough.”