King Charles has acted amid the continued fallout from his brother’s ties with Jeffrey Epstein
Britain’s King Charles III has stripped his brother Prince Andrew of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal residence due to sexual assault allegations and his close friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
According to the royal family, from now on, the former prince will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and must vacate the Royal Lodge mansion near Windsor Castle, where he has lived for more than 20 years. Andrew, who surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier this month, will move to “alternative private accommodation,” Buckingham Palace said on Thursday.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him. Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse,” the statement said.
According to the BBC, Andrew remains eighth in line to the British throne, despite losing his titles.
In 2022, Andrew settled a civil lawsuit with US activist Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that he had raped her three times in 2001, when she was 17 years old. Giuffre, who committed suicide in April, claimed that Epstein and his girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, had trafficked her to the royal. Andrew maintains that the alleged incidents “never happened” and insists that he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes when he hosted him and Maxwell at Royal Lodge in 2006.
Interest in the Epstein case was reignited earlier this year when US government agencies said they had found no evidence of foul play in his 2019 death in a Manhattan jail, which was ruled a suicide. Officials also denied that the disgraced financier had kept a list of the wealthy people he allegedly trafficked women to. Giuffre’s memoirs were posthumously released in October, bringing renewed attention to Andrew’s ties to Epstein.
The US Justice Department has reportedly issued subpoenas and arrest warrants as part of a probe into a key BLM charity
The US Justice Department is investigating whether leaders of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement defrauded their donors, the Associated Press reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The BLM movement rose to prominence in 2020 amid nationwide protests and riots following the killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd by police. Activists associated with the group have called for “racial justice” and pushed to “defund” police departments.
According to AP, investigators have issued subpoenas and at least one search warrant as part of a probe into the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and “other black-led organizations.”
The foundation told AP that it was “not a target of any federal criminal investigation” and remained “committed to full transparency, accountability, and the responsible stewardship of resources dedicated to building a better future for black communities.”
The foundation’s co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, resigned in 2021 after the New York Post reported she had purchased a $1.4 million luxury home near Malibu, in addition to three other “high-end” properties she already owned. Cullors claimed she was the victim of “right-wing attacks” aimed at discrediting her. A year later, New York Magazine revealed that the foundation had used donations to buy a $6 million property in California with “more than half a dozen bedrooms and bathrooms.” The foundation said at the time that the property would be used to house fellows from a program for black artists and influencers.
In October of 2024, Sir Maejor Page, head of the nonprofit Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta, was sentenced to 42 months in prison for misusing funds to pay for a home, hotel stays, and clothing.
In September of 2025, BLM activist Monica Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to defrauding donors of her Violence in Boston (VIB) charity and misusing funds from government relief programs.
Tehran blocked most foreign messengers in 2018, arguing they were used to incite violence in anti-government protests
Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) has started talks with Telegram and other social media platforms, aimed at getting them to comply with Tehran’s conditions and unblocking the messengers, the Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tehran will cease blocking the messengers if they take steps to fulfill certain steps set out by an Iranian Supreme Council of Cyberspace resolution earlier this year, the agency said.
The conditions include the platforms’ compliance with Iran’s national security requirements, preserving its sovereignty, strengthening the rule of law, and not harming domestic social media platforms, according to Mehr.
The resolution also set out a mechanism for certain members of the cyberspace watchdog to lead negotiations, with the main responsibility for the talks falling under the Iranian ICT ministry, it added.
Tehran banned Telegram and certain other messengers in 2018, arguing that they were being used by anti-government groups to incite violence and threaten national security amid widespread upheaval.
Despite being officially barred, Telegram and other foreign social media apps have remained popular in the country, with many users skirting the ban using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
The agency reportedly cannot pay its informants or move forward with some investigations, Reuters reports
The ongoing US government shutdown has put national security at risk by directly affecting ongoing FBI investigations, Reuters reported, citing current and former employees of the agency. The bureau particularly lacks funds to pay informants and gather “real-time intelligence,” according to the news agency’s sources.
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed as part of the shutdown, which entered its 30th day on Thursday. The Democrats have reportedly said they will not green-light a new spending bill in the Senate unless the Republicans fulfill all their demands, including extending subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
According to the FBI, the situation is now becoming increasingly tense. “There is no doubt that those choosing to play politics with government funding are putting national security at risk,” the agency’s spokesperson told Reuters. “President [Donald] Trump has repeatedly called for the federal government to reopen, and the FBI fully concurs with that position.”
A former FBI agent, Dan Brunner, said that the impasse was likely affecting “a lot of investigations, national security, and criminal investigations.” It could also create friction within the agency itself, since it has only been paying its special agents – a small fraction of its workforce, he warned. “It is a problem that the agents are getting paid and everyone else is not,” Brunner said.
Earlier, CNN reported on other issues the US is facing due to the shutdown, including disruptions in civil aviation and delays in nuclear arms production. Over 9,000 flights were canceled or delayed in just the first ten days of the shutdown due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. In a remark that drew widespread criticism, a senior Democratic aide told CNN that the party “will not concede short of planes falling out of the sky” .
The last government shutdown took place in 2018 during Trump’s first term and continued for 35 days, the longest in US history.
Theo Francken has said his statement should be seen in the context of NATO’s deterrence doctrine
Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken has sought to clarify his statement that NATO could “wipe Moscow off the map,” insisting it was made in the context of the bloc’s principle of deterrence. Moscow condemned his “irresponsible” rhetoric as an example of “military psychosis.”
Francken posted his comments on Thursday on social media, also sharing a screenshot of an X post by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who mocked him online and congratulated Russia’s “friends” on the successful test of the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drone.
In his post, Francken said NATO “is not at war with Russia and has no desire to be,” describing the US-led military bloc as “by definition a defensive alliance.” He added that NATO’s ‘strike back’ principle had been “undisputed for 76 years” and formed the foundation of the bloc’s deterrence posture.
“That’s what I meant in the… interview, and I don’t take back a single word,” he wrote.
Francken’s clarification followed remarks he made in an interview reported by Belgian outlet De Morgen earlier this week, in which he brushed off concerns that supplying US-made Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine could provoke a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. He argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not use nuclear weapons because the US-led bloc could “wipe Moscow off the map,” adding that any attack on Brussels would leave the Russian capital “flattened.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko later described Francken’s remarks as typical of “the atmosphere of military psychosis” in Western Europe, while the Russian Embassy in Belgium called them “absurd and disconnected from reality.”
Moscow has characterized the Ukraine conflict as a NATO proxy war against Russia, arguing that Western arms deliveries will only prolong the hostilities rather than change the outcome.
The ghosts of the Cuban Missile Crisis are back, this time haunting Ukraine, Venezuela, and Washington’s divided politics
In world history, the Caribbean Crisis – or the Cuban Missile Crisis – refers to the tense October of 1962, when the US and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war. The confrontation began with the deployment of American missiles in Türkiye, along the Soviet Union’s southern border, and Moscow’s subsequent decision to place nuclear warheads in Cuba, just off Florida’s coast.
Through intense diplomacy between October 16 and 28, both sides agreed to withdraw their weapons, set up a direct hotline between Washington and Moscow, and lay the groundwork for future arms control deals. During those thirteen days, the air was thick with fear, yet the true scope of negotiations remained hidden from the world until long after the danger had passed.
In a striking twist of fate, sixty-three years later – in October 2025 – relations between Russia and the US have taken a hauntingly similar turn. On October 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump held their eighth and longest phone call of the year. The key outcome was an agreement to prepare a high-level meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to set the parameters for a summit between the two presidents, planned for Budapest, Hungary.
While historians will later unpack the full picture, we can already draw some conclusions from open sources. Notably, the “breaking news” about the upcoming summit came after weeks of heated media coverage of the military-political standoff between Moscow and Washington – and a new wave of debate on arms control.
The diplomacy unravels
Relations between the two nuclear powers have been sliding toward open confrontation since the Anchorage summit on August 15, 2025. That meeting, meant to ease tensions, instead became a flashpoint.
Just days later, on August 18, the Ukrainian leadership – seemingly having shifted Trump’s earlier stance that Kiev must “acknowledge territorial realities” – joined forces with European allies (the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland) and the Democrats in a diplomatic counteroffensive. They began pressuring the Trump administration to abandon its tentative agreements with Moscow and escalate the conflict instead – from seizing Russian reserves frozen in Western banks to arming Kiev with Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory.
For Europe’s hawks, the goal was clear: turn Trump’s favorite talking point – that “if the 2020 elections hadn’t been rigged, the Ukraine conflict would never have happened” – into an ironic reversal. In other words, transform “Biden’s war” into “Trump’s war.”
Trump’s rhetoric in the following two months – from mid-August to mid-October – suggested that this pressure was working. He posted, “I’m very disappointed in Putin,” “Ukraine can win back all territory lost to Russia,” and “Russia is a paper tiger.” The message was clear: Washington was raising the stakes.
Meanwhile, the White House seemed to ignore Moscow’s proposal to extend the New START Treaty for one more year after its February 2026 expiration and to begin drafting a new accord. In reality, the deadlock had already set in long before Putin announced his “roadmap” for mutual disarmament at the September 22 Security Council meeting. Back in May, Trump had floated his idea of a “Golden Dome” missile defense system – a modernized version of Reagan’s Star Wars – and sought to include China in future nuclear talks.
With Russia insisting that any limits on nuclear forces must account for NATO’s overall arsenal – including that of France and the UK – Trump’s response effectively killed off any hope for a new strategic stability deal. In that climate, Ukraine’s request for Tomahawk missiles, operable only by US personnel, looked to Moscow like a dangerous escalation that wiped away the last remnants of goodwill preserved since the Anchorage summit.
On October 8, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, responsible for arms control and US relations, gave a rare public warning:
“Unfortunately, we have to admit that Anchorage’s powerful momentum toward agreements has been largely exhausted by the efforts of opponents and supporters of the ‘war until the last Ukrainian,’ particularly Europeans.”
Everyone on both sides of the Atlantic understood exactly what he meant.
The new front: Venezuela
The situation today resembles the Cuban crisis not only because of nuclear tensions but also because of renewed activity around Venezuela. Facing a surge in narcotics trafficking from Latin America, Donald Trump sought to tackle two issues at once: tighten immigration laws (hitting Democrat-controlled states like California, New York, and Illinois) and move against the government of Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.
This mix of domestic politics and foreign ambition triggered the ongoing government shutdown. At the same time, the Trump administration rebranded the US Department of Defense as the Department of War – a move that brought Washington to the brink of direct conflict with Venezuela after severing diplomatic ties and destroying several Venezuelan fishing vessels.
Ironically, Trump remains the only US president in the 21st century who has not yet launched a direct military intervention. That fact drove his Democratic opponents to find ways to provoke him – not only in Ukraine but globally. Knowing his obsession with winning a Nobel Peace Prize and aware of the indirect influence they hold over the Norwegian Nobel Committee (chaired by Jørgen Watne Frydnes, a known supporter of the Democrats), they delivered a symbolic blow: awarding the prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
At that moment, US intervention in Venezuela seemed imminent. Yet only hours before Putin’s scheduled call with Trump, news broke that Russia had ratified its Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Caracas. The timing was impossible to miss.
Budapest canceled
Trump’s reaction was swift. Though he refused to authorize strikes deep into Russia and continued to withhold Tomahawks from Ukraine, on October 22, 2025, he announced two dramatic steps: the cancelation of the Budapest summit and a new round of anti-Russian sanctions. These targeted Lukoil and Rosneft and their exports to China – a clear signal not only to Moscow but also to Beijing ahead of Trump’s planned Asian tour and meeting with Xi Jinping.
Encouraged by their success in derailing the summit – by reminding Budapest of its obligations to the ICC and pressing Eastern European states to close their airspace to Putin’s aircraft – EU members rushed to hold an emergency meeting with Ukraine. There, they discussed the fate of frozen Russian assets and unveiled a 19th package of sanctions.
Against this backdrop, Russia staged nuclear triad exercises: launching a Yars ICBM from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, test-firing the Sineva missile from the submarine Bryansk in the Barents Sea, and deploying cruise missiles from a Tu-95MS bomber.
At first glance, it seems that the urge for confrontation has defeated the instinct for diplomacy. But if there is one lesson from the October 1962 crisis, it’s that outcomes reveal themselves only when all the terms of peace are finally set. In diplomacy, reaching those terms can take days, weeks – or years.
The Oval Office clash saw the US vice president accuse the Ukrainian leader of disrespect
US Vice President J.D. Vance has joked about his heated Oval Office confrontation with Vladimir Zelensky, calling the exchange “the most famous thing I’ve ever done.” Speaking with Pod Force One host Miranda Devine on Wednesday, Vance explained that he had been triggered by what he perceived as “rudeness” on the part of the Ukrainian leader.
The clash unfolded during Zelensky’s visit to Washington in February, when what was planned to be the signing of a minerals agreement between the US and Ukraine spiraled into a shouting match in front of the media. The talks involving Zelensky, US President Donald Trump, and Vance quickly turned hostile, with Trump accusing Zelensky of unwillingness to negotiate peace and of “gambling with World War III.” Vance, for his part, labeled the Ukrainian leader “disrespectful” and ungrateful for the aid provided.
Vance said that relations have since improved. “That was six months ago. We’ve turned over a new leaf,” he said.
“If you go back to that moment, I was getting frustrated because I perceived some rudeness… It’s probably the most famous thing I’ve ever done, or maybe ever will do,” Vance added, laughing.
Washington has since made “significant progress” in mediating a peace deal, Vance said. “We’re trying to have productive relationships with both the Ukrainians and the Russians,” he explained.
Trump has urged the two sides to pursue a negotiated solution. However, Kiev has rejected Moscow’s proposals for broader talks, insisting it will not compromise on what Russia calls the root causes of the conflict.
Moscow has stated that a lasting settlement must include guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO, along with the country’s demilitarization, denazification, and recognition of the territorial realities on the ground.
Zelensky and his European backers continue to push for expanded Western military support while resisting diplomatic engagement between Moscow and Washington.
Earlier this month, Trump proposed holding a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary, and Moscow signaled its willingness to participate. He later canceled the plan, citing what he called Moscow’s “lack of” commitment to the peace process and urging an immediate halt to hostilities along the front lines.
The French president is facing a deepening political crisis
French President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity has hit a record low, with his approval rating falling to just 11%, according to a new poll published by Le Figaro on Thursday.
Earlier this month, Macron avoided impeachment despite accusations that he bears responsibility for France’s deepening political crisis. His government has lacked a parliamentary majority for two years, since his decision to dissolve the National Assembly in June 2024. The move, prompted by his coalition’s defeat in the European Parliament elections, was widely seen as a gamble that backfired, producing a hung parliament and halting much of the country’s legislative work.
Since taking office in 2017, Macron has seen seven of his prime ministers resign, including Edouard Philippe (July 2020), Jean Castex (April 2022), Elisabeth Borne (January 2024), Gabriel Attal (July 2024), Michel Barnier (December 2024), and Francois Bayrou (September 2025). The current office holder, Sebastien Lecornu, was reappointed by Macron after resigning in October due to a split in parliament over the government’s efforts to pass a budget aimed at curbing the nation’s rising debt.
The 11% approval mark echoes the nadir reached by Macron’s predecessor Francois Hollande, who also saw his rating fall to similar depths in late 2016, shortly before announcing that he would not seek a second presidential term.
According to the Verian Group, which carried out the survey of a thousand respondents, Macron has tied Hollande as France’s least popular president since the polling organization and its predecessors began tracking public opinion in the early 1970s.
Previous surveys showed a steady decline in Macron’s approval. His satisfaction rating in January 2025 fell to just 21%. A survey conducted last month showed that the president’s rating had slipped further to 15%, with 80% of respondents saying they do not trust him.
The US tech giants cannot bar West Jerusalem from using its products even if it violates their terms of service, a consortium of outlets has reported
Israel has forced US tech giants Google and Amazon to violate their own legal obligations under a 2021 cloud services contract with West Jerusalem, according to a joint investigation by several news media outlets, including The Guardian.
The Jewish state’s contracts with US tech platforms have been under close scrutiny following widespread accusations, including from the UN, that its military response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed over 1,200 people constitutes a genocide.
Known as Project Nimbus, the $1.2 billion deal reportedly bars the firms from restricting the Israeli government’s access to cloud services they provide, even if it violates their terms of use, the reports, carried by The Guardian along with +972 Magazine and Local Call, suggest.
The deal also reportedly requires the two companies to secretly notify West Jerusalem using a so-called “winking mechanism” should any foreign state or court seek access to Israeli data stored in the cloud.
The “wink” involves the US firm paying Israel an amount – between 1,000 and 9,999 shekels – that equates to the international dialing code of the request source each time they transfer its data to a foreign nation.
The scheme effectively allows the tech firms leak information on third party data requests, normally regraded as confidential.
Google and Amazon are also reportedly to face heavy financial penalties if they cut Israel off from their services. The Jewish state can “make use of any service” at will as long as it does not breach Israeli law, infringe on copyright or involve reselling the companies’ technology, according to the leaked text of the contact.
The clause is allegedly aimed at preventing a situation in which the US tech giants would be forced to break ties with Israel over pressure from employees, shareholders or activists.
Google employees increasingly protested against the company’s ties with the Israeli government amid the war in Gaza over the past years. In April 2024, the company fired nearly 30 such workers, accusing them of disrupting the work process. In July 2025, Google co-founder Sergey Brin accused the UN of being “transparently anti-Semitic” over a report accusing tech firms, including Alphabet, of profiting from the Gaza war.
Unveiled documents show that nearly 400 GOP members were subpoenaed in the investigation into alleged 2020 election interference
The FBI under former US President Joe Biden targeted several hundred Republican figures and organizations in its investigation into alleged 2020 election interference, according to newly released Senate records.
The investigation, dubbed ‘Arctic Frost’, was launched in April 2022 by then FBI Director Christopher Wray and later became the basis for a criminal case against President Donald Trump. The allegations stemmed from claims that Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he says was marred by widespread voter fraud. The case, led by then special counsel Jack Smith under Attorney General Merrick Garland, was eventually dropped in 2024 after Trump’s election victory.
On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa unveiled 197 subpoenas issued by Smith and his team during the probe, which he said were obtained from whistleblowers. According to Grassley’s office, the subpoenas were sent to 34 individuals and 163 businesses, demanding communications, testimony, and financial records related to at least 430 Republican figures and entities.
The subpoenaed records included correspondence with major media companies such as CBS, Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, and Sinclair, as well as communications with White House advisers and “any member, employee or agent of the Legislative Branch of the US Government,” Grassley said. The documents also detail requests for “preliminary toll analysis” on several prominent Republican lawmakers.
“Arctic Frost was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus,” Grassley said during a press conference on Wednesday, adding that the released documents confirm the partisan “weaponization” of law enforcement.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said his phone records were among those subpoenaed and that Judge James Boasberg had barred AT&T from informing him about the request for a year. Cruz accused Boasberg of “abusing his power” and called for his impeachment.
“Arctic Frost is Joe Biden’s Watergate,” Cruz said on X, calling for accountability for the “partisan zealots who sought to corrupt the DOJ and judiciary to attack their enemies.”
Trump repeatedly slammed the investigation as a political witch hunt and an attempt to derail his 2024 presidential bid. Responding to the latest revelations, he declared that Smith, Wray, Garland, and other Biden-era officials involved in the probe were “a disgrace to our Nation.” In a post on Truth Social, he urged that those responsible be investigated and imprisoned.
