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More than 664,000 customers in Florida and Alabama have been left without power as Isaias downs trees, power lines.

Hurricane Isaias has crashed into the United States Gulf Coast before losing speed and turning into a post-tropical storm as it moved over southern Alabama, threatening flash flooding and strong winds farther inland.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Saturday that Isaias is about 89km (55 miles) south-southwest of Montgomery, with maximum ⁠sustained winds of 100 kilometres per hour (65 ⁠miles per hour).

When it made landfall near Destin, Florida, as the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, Isaias had maximum sustained winds of 169km/h (105mph), the agency said.

Roads in Destin were flooded, while in nearby Pensacola, police warned residents to stay off the streets because of debris across roadways.

While the extent of the damage was not immediately known, many area residents posted pictures online of downed trees and power lines, and one social media video showed a roof being ripped off an inn in Pensacola.

Some Panhandle counties temporarily suspended their emergency response on Friday night because of dangerous conditions.

Parts of southern Alabama were also flooded, with officials in Mobile reporting downed trees and power lines.

Roads in Houston County, which is in the southeastern corner of the state, were closed because of similar conditions.

More than 664,000 customers in Florida and Alabama were without power early Saturday, according to poweroutage.com.

One of the biggest concerns is a storm surge that could reach 0.91-1.52 metres (3-5ft) from Dauphin Island, Alabama, to Florida’s Aucilla River, according to the hurricane centre.

The storm grounded most Friday flights at several airports, including all flights in and out of Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport.

‘Under control’

Asked about hurricane preparations, President Donald Trump ⁠told reporters outside the White House, “We’re watching it very ⁠closely, the hurricane,” adding that it was “under control”.

Florida’s National Guard deployed about 5,000 soldiers and airmen to help with the response, with search-and-rescue teams ready to respond, while some prisons evacuated inmates.

“Emergency declarations have ‌been approved in Florida and Alabama to ensure federal resources are available to respond to Isaias,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on X, as residents ‌were urged to take shelter and watch out for hurricane conditions.

Another tropical storm, Rachel, was also expected to bring strong winds and rain to northern Mexico and Southern California over the weekend.

And Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it barrelled towards Mexico’s coast early on Saturday.

The NHC said Simon’s maximum sustained winds increased to 225km/h (140mph). A storm of that strength or greater is considered a major hurricane.

Simon is expected to bring heavy rainfall over parts of southwestern Mexico, possibly concentrated along the coast of Jalisco and in parts of Michoacan, Colima, and Nayarit.

Forecasters warned of life-threatening flooding and mudslides.

London, United Kingdom – Nearly 200 people packed into Edami, a small Lebanese bakery in east London, to celebrate a decade of Lajee Celtic, a grassroots sports club based in a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

What began as a football project has grown into an international symbol of solidarity.

In London, the room was filled with Palestinian flags, the aroma of Edami’s freshly baked manousheh, and Lajee Celtic shirts – which have been worn by celebrities, including football icon Eric Cantona and the actor Hannah Einbinder.

Martin, a Lajee Celtic organiser, travelled down from Glasgow for the celebration in September. He first visited Aida Camp, in the occupied West Bank, more than 10 years ago, a trip he described as life-changing.

“I don’t think anyone would really have expected that the project would have been as successful as it’s been,” said Martin, who requested to be identified by his first name. “But Celtic is a unique football club with its foundation, its Irish identity, the diaspora community, its universal support and then the values, which tie so much of that together.”

The relationship between Aida Camp, where Lajee is based, and Celtic supporters developed over years.

Mohammed al-Azzeh, director of the Lajee Centre, which provides services to the youth of the camp, remembers how it all began.

“We’d built up relationships with friends from Scotland and Ireland who had visited Palestine, and then in 2012, I travelled to Glasgow for the first time. We started to have conversations about creating a football academy,” he recalled.

By 2015, the idea was taking shape when a group of footballers from the camp travelled to Belfast to play a game.

Then came the 2016 Champions League draw. Celtic were paired with Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva.

Supporters ignored warnings that displaying Palestinian flags could result in a fine. As the teams emerged, the stadium was transformed into a sea of Palestinian flags, an action led by Celtic ultras, the Green Brigade.

UEFA subsequently fined Celtic.

The Green Brigade responded by launching the Match The Fine For Palestine campaign. Not to pay the fine, but to support Palestinian organisations, including with the formation of a football academy in Aida Camp.

For al-Azzeh, it was a turning point.

“The support and solidarity shown in that game was really a pivotal moment,” he said. “And that’s what ultimately led to Lajee Celtic becoming what it is today.”

The team has brought together young Palestinians from villages around Bethlehem, refugee camps and communities in Hebron and Jerusalem.

“It means a lot, for us as Palestinians, to be in one place and meeting each other,” al-Azzeh said. “It becomes about more than just playing football.”

Lajee Celtic is competing in organised football for the first time. The club had been due to enter the Palestinian league three years ago, but the competition was cancelled when Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began. Now, despite restrictions on movement between Palestinian cities and the wider disruption to football, the club has entered the Thousand Martyrs Cup, named after the 1,014 athletes killed in Gaza since October 2023.

Bassil Mikdadi, journalist and founder of Football Palestine, said that international reach has given Lajee Celtic a significance beyond the club itself.

“Lajee Celtic is a blueprint for ways in which fans of European clubs can directly support those on the ground in Palestine. It’s connective tissue,” he said.

For Martin, the popular shirts are more than merchandise.

“When people buy these shirts, they do so knowing that the money is funding football, sports and general youth development in Palestine. And then when the same people wear these shirts, whether they’re in Glasgow or London or New York, they’re each making their own individual solidarity action.”

Lajee Celtic created a link between clubs and communities inside Palestine and supporters and campaigners abroad.

“It has this kind of cross-cultural, cross-border solidarity,” he said.

That connection has become increasingly important as Palestinian football has struggled to continue since the genocide in Gaza.

For Mikdadi, the survival of grassroots clubs is essential: They are the groundwork for the national team.

“The success of the Palestinian national team in recent years … the base of that success has always been players provided by clubs in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.

The club’s ambitions stretch beyond football. It has expanded into sports such as boxing and table tennis, while creating opportunities for young Palestinians across Palestine and the diaspora.

“Fundraising campaigns come and go all the time. But when you create a football club and when you have that sort of tangible idea at the heart of it, then you are creating a journey,” said Martin.

Mohammed al-Azzeh recalled a meaningful memory on a beach in Cape Town, South Africa, where the team played two friendlies in 2025.

Samir al-Amir, a coordinator with Lajee Celtic, had spent more than 19 years in Israeli prisons. When he travelled with the team to South Africa, it was the first time he had been able to leave the walls and checkpoints of the West Bank.

Al-Azzeh remembers watching him on the beach.

“He was acting like a young boy because it was the first time seeing the sea,” he said. “Without Lajee Celtic, I’m not sure Samir would have ever had that opportunity. That illustrates why the project is so important,” he said.

Cockroach Janta ​Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and other leaders detained before ​protest to demand election chief’s resignation.

President Lai emphasises peace and freedom, vows not to tolerate aggression in Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te has said the island “cherishes peace” and will “not give up our freedom” in a National Day speech outside the Presidential Office in Taipei.

Lai made the remarks on Saturday before thousands of people, including foreign diplomats.

“We are open to exchanges, but will not accept subordination,” he said. “Our aim by increasing investment in national defence is not to provoke; rather, it is to deter war.”

Taiwanese fighter jets and two Chinook helicopters carrying giant Taiwan flags flew over the capital ahead of the speech.

The holiday marks the 115th anniversary of a 1911 uprising that toppled China’s last imperial dynasty and led to the founding of the Republic of China.

Pressure from China

Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of an attack by China, which insists the island is part of its territory, has never renounced the use of force to take it, and calls Lai a “separatist”.

Beijing has rebuffed his offers of talks.

Lai said China continued to “apply pressure through military and grey-zone activities in an attempt to alter the status quo across the Taiwan Strait”.

Grey-zone tactics are actions that stop short of open war. “Peace cannot rely solely on wishes, and tolerance cannot become a pretext for aggressors to encroach ever further,” he added.

Lai’s government has set aside a record 1.1 trillion New Taiwan dollars ($34.5bn) for defence in 2027, more than 3 percent of gross domestic product.

China held war games around the island shortly after Lai’s first National Day speech in 2024, but not last year. Its last drills near Taiwan were in late December, after news of an $11bn arms deal with Washington, the largest ever US weapons package for the island.

Lai said he welcomed talks between the United States and China, but insisted “there must be respect for the right of the people of Taiwan to exist”.

He urged democracies in the Indo-Pacific to join forces to preserve peace and stability in the region.

The US switched official diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing nearly 50 years ago but remains Taiwan’s most important security backer.

Officials in Washington and Taipei have repeatedly said US policy on Taiwan has not changed under President Donald Trump.

In May, after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Trump suggested arms sales to Taiwan could be a bargaining chip with China, which set off alarm across the world.

Taiwan is now waiting for Trump to sign off on $14bn worth of weapons, including the US-made Patriot air defence system.

The dispute dates back to China’s civil war, when the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after defeat by Mao Zedong’s communists.

The Republic of China remains the island’s formal name.

The Cockroach Janta Party wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to quit over changes to voter lists.

India has deployed thousands of police and paramilitary personnel in central Delhi and restricted transport in and around the capital ahead of a youth-led protest demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, the country’s chief election commissioner.

Saturday’s rally, called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-based political movement, is expected to be the biggest yet in a wave of near-daily protests over a revision of voter lists that critics say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Organisers have billed it as a protest to “Save Democracy”.

Shutdown of central Delhi

Police have not authorised a rally at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi, which authorities usually designate for protests, because they said the request was not made on time and that the CJP had violated undertakings given during earlier protests.

Police have also warned that protesters will face a forceful law enforcement response if they violate the ban.

Roads to the site are blocked with multiple layers of metal barricades, as authorities shut 57 metro stations from Friday night, cancelled several long-distance trains and suspended mobile internet within 4km (2.5 miles) of the protest area until Saturday night, the Indian news agency ANI reported.

India’s Supreme Court said on Friday that some trains must still run and that blanket closure of metro stations is unlikely.

“The dictator would rather shut down the entire national capital and inconvenience millions of citizens than allow a peaceful protest at a designated protest site,” CJP chief Abhijeet Dipke said on X.

The CJP says at least 10,000 people, including protesters travelling to Delhi by train, have been detained across the country.

“You can detain the people, you cannot detain the movement,” said Neha Bora, national president of the All India Students’ Association, who has emerged as a leading face of the protests.

What kicked off the protests

Protesters want Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to quit over a voter list revision that has removed more than 130 million names.

The Election Commission says the exercise removes duplicate and ineligible voters and aims to prevent “foreign illegal immigrants” from voting.

Critics say it has disproportionately affected marginalised and minority communities.

The protests escalated after the Indian Express reported that Kumar’s two deputies had formally raised concerns at least 14 times in the past 10 months over the revisions.

The Election Commission and the BJP have denied the allegations. The BJP says the opposition is misleading the country because it cannot win elections.

The CJP began online as political satire in May after Chief Justice Surya Kant called unemployed youth “cockroaches”, sparking nationwide outrage. Since then, the CJP has garnered a large following among India’s youth.

The July protests led Modi’s education minister to resign over exam paper leaks. The latest demonstrations come months before a series of state elections in early 2027, including in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, which the BJP governs.

Negotiators aim to present a proposal to Russia in the coming weeks, meanwhile Putin says resumption of talks unlikely.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said an immediate resumption of peace talks with Ukraine is unlikely, citing drone attacks on Moscow during parliamentary elections last month.

In a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Friday, Putin said Moscow was ready to resume negotiations with Kyiv after the parliamentary elections. However, the drone attacks on the capital made the resumption of trilateral peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US unlikely.

“By launching a large-scale drone attack on Moscow, other cities and polling stations on the most important day of the elections, and by targeting some people involved in organising the elections, the Kyiv regime has, in reality, interrupted the possibility of an immediate resumption of the negotiation process,” said Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov about the call with Trump.

“As the president said, we will now assess when these negotiations can resume,” he added regarding the trilateral talks.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that Russia’s war in Ukraine is at a dangerous stalemate and the United States will keep working towards a deal to end the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that the country was ready to hold trilateral talks with the United States and Russia this month.

US-Russia diesel deal

Earlier on Friday, Donald Trump announced after the call with Putin that Russia agreed to deliver more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to American and global markets.

The deal was criticised by US lawmakers, Zelenskyy and European allies.

Zelenskyy called the agreement a “gift to Putin”.

“All that money goes toward the war against people, against Ukraine, against all of us. I believe our team is simply being used as a smokescreen. And that is certainly not fair,” he said in a statement.

In response to the US-Russia diesel deal, a government spokesperson said the United Kingdom would continue to “maintain pressure on Russia through the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed by the UK.”

Government security forces regain control of Rumbek town after outsiders attempted to take control of the area.

Intercommunal clashes have killed 71 people in South Sudan’s town of Rumbek, in Lakes State, the caretaker government said in a statement.

“According to initial security reports, approximately 71 people were reportedly killed,” including four soldiers, the South Sudanese interim Ministry of Information said in a statement on Friday. The exact number of fatalities has yet to be verified.

According to AFP, witnesses said a group of people from outside Rumbek tried to take control of the town and briefly succeeded. The attackers withdrew when police and military reinforcements arrived. Two witnesses said the fighting moved outside the city limits.

The government statement said, “Rumbek town is currently under the control of Government security forces, and efforts are ongoing to restore normalcy”.

The caretaker government strongly condemned the violence and urged all communities to “exercise maximum restraint and refrain from acts of retaliation that could further escalate tensions”.

Interim government

On September 22, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir dissolved the transitional government, three months before the country’s first election since its independence in 2011. Kiir appointed a caretaker administration as the country prepares for its first-ever national elections.

His decree ended a power-sharing arrangement set up under a 2018 peace deal that halted a five-year civil war in which about 400,000 people were killed.

Intercommunal conflict has continued across South Sudan, resulting in multiple deadly clashes.

On September 17, 26 people were killed, and 82 were injured during days of fighting in a disputed region on the border between South Sudan and Sudan.

In early March, intercommunal violence left at least 169 people dead after dozens of armed men attacked a town.

Rising frustration about housing shortages and surging rents in Spain has led to mass protests.

The demonstrations started last month after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, who died at age 87 this week.

The Socialist-led government tried to introduce measures to protect tenants and freeze rents, but Parliament rejected them. The conservative opposition says the solution is to ease regulations and build more homes.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has since announced early elections. Analysts say he wants to galvanise support, as he faces pressure on immigration and corruption investigations into his party.

Two recent polls indicate the right-wing People’s Party and far-right Vox are on track for a combined majority.

Can demonstrations against the housing crisis reverse Sanchez’s political fortunes?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

Hana Jalloul – Secretary of international politics and cooperation for the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and a member of the European Parliament

Daniel Lacalle – Chief economist at Tressis and professor at the IE Business School

Pablo Calderon Martinez – Associate professor in politics and international relations at Northeastern University

Russia to supply 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, followed by 1.5 million more, as prices soar amid the Iran war.

United States President Donald Trump said that Russia has agreed to supply 300,000 tonnes of diesel fuel to global markets amid discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I have just concluded a highly successful discussion with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, wherein it was agreed that Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace, another 500,000 Tons during the month of November, and 1,000,000 Tons immediately thereafter,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The president added that Russia would deliver an additional 3 million tonnes of fuel “within a short period of time”. He said that the country would supply 500,000 tonnes in November.

An envoy for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kirill Dmitriev, praised cooperation between Russia and the United States on diesel and energy in a post on X shortly after.

“Russia-US cooperation on diesel and energy will benefit the world,” Dmitriev wrote on X.

Petrol price pressures

The deal comes despite Ukrainian air strikes, which have taken more than half of the country’s oil refining capacity offline, according to claims made by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence on Sunday.

The latest announcement comes a week after the G7 countries agreed to release 100 million barrels amid pressure from the White House.

The move also comes as prices of diesel, used in agriculture, heating homes and trucking goods, are near record highs ahead of the November 3 congressional elections that will determine control of Congress.

Diesel prices have been elevated in recent months but have started to decline. The average price for a gallon is $6.27 ($1.66 per litre), according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks daily petrol prices. That’s down $0.10 from this time last week, but up $5.94 from this time one month ago.

Diesel prices, which can drive inflation, are up 70 percent since the US and Israel’s war on Iran began this year, despite two high-profile recent moves by Trump to boost supplies of the fuel: pressuring allies ‌to release emergency reserves and expanding access to tax-exempt red-dyed diesel, which is normally used for farm equipment.

The wars in Iran and Ukraine have triggered an unprecedented global fuel supply crunch.

The role has been vacant since former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt left in August.

Conservative commentator Katie Zacharia has been picked to be US President Donald Trump’s next press secretary.

A White House source told Al Jazeera on Friday that the position has “been offered” to Zacharia.

The role has been vacant since former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt left in August.

This story is developing…

Israeli settlers have carried out attacks and pogroms disrupting the Palestinian olive harvest in the West Bank, while Israeli forces separately detained several Palestinians across the occupied territory.

At least 19 settler attacks were recorded on Friday by the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, a Palestinian government body operating under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The commission said the incidents included attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters, the burning and uprooting of olive trees, and the theft of crops and livestock. Other Palestinians and their vehicles were also targeted.

Settlers set fire to Palestinian-owned groves and stole olives in what is considered the most important season for harvesting the single-seeded stone fruit.

More than 50 olive trees were uprooted by settlers in Qusra, the commission said.

Settlers also assaulted and injured Palestinian farmers involved in the harvest in the Tal, where a Palestinian-owned vehicle was set on fire, it added.

Additionally, olive harvesters were attacked in Jorish, Beita, Naqoura, Birzeit, Deir Bzeih and Farata.

A farmer was injured in reported gunfire in Kafr ad-Dik, and the use of live ammunition was reported during a settler pogrom, backed by Israeli forces, in Deir Ballut.

Elsewhere, an elderly Palestinian woman in Berin, east of Hebron, was injured after settlers set their dogs on farmers while sheep were stolen in Ein Qinya.

A Palestinian man and his child were attacked and their vehicle stolen by settlers in Yabrud. Settler attacks on Palestinian-owned vehicles were also reported in the towns of Sarda and al-Rihan.

Brazen attacks against Palestinians

Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank said settlers, backed Israeli forces, have grown more brazen in their attacks against Palestinians during the olive harvest despite the presence of foreign activists and observers.

“Palestinians have to go about the harvest in large groups, that include international solidarity activists, to try to stop settler intimidation and attacks,” Ibrahim said, adding that the settlers wait for the groups to start leaving at the end of the harvest, before springing into action.

“It has become a very difficult journey, as the Palestinians try to leave the harvesting areas, Israeli settlers continue to intimidate them under the protection of the Israeli army,” she said.

As Ibrahim reported, a Palestinian family was under attack by Israeli settlers who recently started building an illegal settlement outpost near Ramallah, “using it as a base to attack Palestinians”, she said.

“No one is being spared,” said Ibrahim.

For Palestinians, the olive harvest is supposed to be a joyous season, but instead, they fear settler attacks and intimidation backed by the Israeli forces.

Sixteen Palestinians arrested

As settler attacks and pogroms continue, the Israeli army arrested 16 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency and local sources speaking to the Anadolu news agency.

In Hebron, southern West Bank, Israeli forces arrested nine Palestinians after raiding and searching their homes, including Ibrahimi Mosque Director Moataz Abu Sneineh and Hammam Abu Markhiya, an official responsible for the mosque’s custodians, Wafa reported.

In the city of Qalqilya, Israeli forces arrested five Palestinians during a raid, local sources said.

Two other Palestinians were arrested after Israeli forces raided and searched several homes in Beita, south of Nablus, the sources said.

Liverpool’s Andoni Iraola looks to Manchester City clash and rival’s appeal over guilty verdict for financial breaches.

Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola said the lack of clarity over Manchester City’s future after the club was found guilty of multiple breaches of financial rules was causing uncertainty throughout the Premier League.

City remain adamant they have done no wrong and have appealed against the findings of an independent commission announced last week.

The Premier League leaders potentially face a severe points deduction that threatens their place in the English top flight.

Iraola believes the world’s richest league is caught in limbo until there is a definitive outcome.

“I think the worst thing probably is the uncertainty, that no one knows what’s going to happen,” the Spaniard said ahead of City’s first outing since the verdict at Liverpool on Sunday.

“But we have to focus on Liverpool – be the best club we can be, the best team we can be and that’s my challenge.”

Iraola only joined the Reds in June but is looking forward to a red-hot atmosphere at home.

“The atmosphere is going to be big, especially at Anfield,” he said.

“We want to give also our supporters reasons to be with us. When they see the team they want to see on the pitch, we can create an even better atmosphere and we will work for that.”

Liverpool are still unbeaten under Iraola, but three draws in their opening five league games means they start the weekend six points off the top.

Iraola’s options up front are limited after Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo were injured on international duty.

“As a club manager, you are always waiting until the game ends (hoping) the doctor doesn’t call you, doesn’t give you bad news, but in this case we’ve been unlucky with Alex and Cody, both of them,” he said.

“They are injured and they are not going to be involved on Sunday.”