A Chinese national has also been deported for flying a UAV near an airport, police have said
Three Germans have been arrested in Norway for allegedly launching a drone in a prohibited zone around an airport, Bild has reported.
The outlet cited local media as saying the three men were detained on Tuesday and released shortly afterwards. It did not identify the men or the type of UAV involved in the incident near Rossvoll Airport.
Separately, Norwegian police confirmed that a Chinese national was deported and fined 12,000 kroner ($1,200) after allegedly flying a drone near Svolvaer Airport in the north of the country. Authorities said they are continuing to investigate multiple reports of drone activity near airports, military facilities and other critical infrastructure.
The incidents come as Western Europe has been plagued by repeated drone sightings in recent weeks, forcing temporary shutdowns at several airports. In Belgium, authorities confirmed that 15 drones were detected above the Elsenborn military base in Liege Province. Munich Airport in Germany was temporarily closed on Friday after unidentified drones were reported in its airspace. Scandinavian airports have also reported incursions.
Western media and officials have suggested that Russia is behind the drone incidents. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson claimed it is “quite probable” Moscow is responsible, although he admitted this has not been proven. European leaders have cited the incidents as justification for boosting military spending and creating a so-called “drone wall.”
Moscow has rejected any connection to the incidents. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the accusations as Western fearmongering used to whip up anti-Russian hysteria. Russian officials have argued that such claims are intended to justify inflated military budgets and escalate tensions.
Speaking at the Valdai Forum on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia does not even have drones capable of reaching the countries in question and insisted there are no military targets for Moscow in Europe. He called the accusations another attempt by the West to escalate the situation around the Ukraine conflict.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has also warned that Kiev could attempt to stage drone provocations as false-flag operations designed to blame Moscow and draw NATO into direct conflict with Russia.
The previous head of the church resigned last November over a sex abuse scandal
The Church of England has appointed its first female Archbishop of Canterbury, ending 1,400 years of male leadership. Former top British nurse, Sarah Mullally, was installed as the confession’s highest-ranking clergy by a church synod on Friday.
Though female priests were first ordained in 1994, women were not permitted to take senior posts until 2014, a reform that followed years of internal schisms and debates within the Church.
Before entering the clergy, Mullally built a distinguished career in nursing, rising to become England’s Chief Nursing Officer. She was ordained as a priest in 2002, and went on to serve as as Bishop of Crediton and then Bishop of London, the Church’s third most senior post. Known for her inclusive stance, she has supported prayers and blessings for same-sex couples, framing her leadership around openness and pastoral care.
Her appointment follows the resignation of her predecessor Archbishop Justin Welby last November, after an inquiry found he failed to act on warnings about a pastor who had abused children for decades.
The second-most senior bishop in the Church of England, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, who took on caretaker functions after Welby’s departure, has also come under fire after a BBC investigation found he had allowed a priest with a history of abuse allegations to remain in ministry. Though he remains in post.
Mullally’s promotion has already drawn resistance from conservative factions within the Anglican Communion, particularly in Africa, where leaders have long opposed women in top clerical roles and condemned the Church of England’s liberal stance on sexuality. GAFCON, a grouping of conservative Anglican churches, said the move showed the English church had “relinquished its authority to lead.”
The Church of England is a Protestant denomination created in 1534, when King Henry VIII rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic Pope in a divorce dispute. Its titular head is the British monarch, while the Archbishop of Canterbury acts as its primate.
The attacker was not carrying a firearm, and one of the victims died of a gunshot injury, law enforcement officials have stated
One of the two victims killed in Thursday’s attack outside a synagogue in a Manchester suburb died after being shot by an armed officer, police have confirmed.
Greater Manchester Police chief constable Stephen Watson said the force believes that the attacker, identified as 35-year-old Jihad al-Shamie, was not carrying a firearm and that the fatal injury was caused by gunfire.
“It follows therefore, that subject to further forensic examination, this injury may sadly have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence of the urgently required action taken by my officers to bring this vicious attack to an end,” Watson said, as quoted by The Guardian.
The victims were identified as 53-year-old Adrian Daulby and 66-year-old Melvin Cravitz, who were killed outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall after al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent, allegedly rammed a car into a crowd and stabbed a man. Police shot al-Shamie dead within seven minutes of being alerted to the incident on Thursday morning.
According to The Guardian, the armed officers who opened fire during the attack are being treated as witnesses rather than suspects in the inquiry into the fatal shooting. The investigation is being led by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which has responsibility for overseeing cases involving police use of force.
One of the three hospitalized victims also appears to have been shot, police added.
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in planning a terrorist act.
Donald Trump has urged NATO members to scrap Russian energy purchases in exchange for new sanctions on Moscow
Türkiye has rejected US demands to abandon Russian gas. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said Ankara will continue purchases from all available suppliers, including Moscow.
The remarks followed calls by US President Donald Trump for NATO states to halt Russian oil and gas purchases in exchange for new sanctions on Moscow, pitched as a way to speed up the Ukraine peace process. After meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, Trump suggested that Ankara, a fellow NATO member, would likely comply with his demand.
Bayraktar dismissed the notion, stressing steady supplies were crucial for his country’s energy security.
“We cannot tell our citizens, ‘we have run out of gas.’ To ensure uninterrupted supply, we need to ensure access to these resources without discrimination,” he said. “Türkiye will naturally continue to receive gas from Russia as the agreements are already in place. Winter is coming. We need to get as much gas as possible from Russia.”
He added that Türkiye will keep diversifying suppliers, as well as expanding domestic production. “Türkiye has significant natural gas consumption. A diversification strategy is crucial… The more sources we buy from, the safer it is,” he stated.
Western states have significantly reduced Russian energy imports since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The EU now plans to abandon Russian fossil fuels by 2027, though many states still buy it. Hungary and Slovakia are both major importers of Russian energy, and strongly oppose the phase-out.
Türkiye is not an EU member but remains a key partner and NATO state. It refused to join Western sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. It continued energy imports and maintained close diplomatic ties with Moscow.
Moscow has called restrictions targeting its energy illegal and self-defeating, warning the EU would have to turn to costlier alternatives or indirect imports. Russian officials also view Trump’s push to steer NATO members away from Russian supplies as intended to boost US exports.
“Trump has never hidden his intention to secure US economic interests. The simplest way is to force the entire world to pay more for American oil and LNG,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RBK last week.
Labour heavyweight Ed Miliband has told the billionaire to “get the hell out of our politics”
UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has accused Elon Musk of posing a major threat to Britain, claiming the billionaire backs nationalist forces seeking to undermine the country.
Speaking at the Labour Party conference on Wednesday, the former party leader linked Musk to Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party gained traction in the May local elections. The US-based entrepreneur has expressed support for the party, but has urged Farage to step down.
According to Miliband, Farage is “a key part of a global network that wants to destroy the ties that bind our communities and our way of life.” He added: “I can sum up the threat for you in two words: Elon Musk.”
Miliband alleged that Musk “incites violence on our streets,”“calls for the overthrow of our elected government,” and enables “disinformation through X” – the microblogging platform that the billionaire purchased in 2022.
We have a message for Elon Musk. Get the hell out of our politics and our country.
Musk appeared unfazed by the remarks. Shortly after the speech, he blasted Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling him “an actor with an empty head” who merely repeats talking points supplied by others.
Musk and Starmer have engaged in a months-long feud over the UK’s grooming gang scandal. In June, Starmer authorized a new national inquiry into the mass sexual exploitation of British girls, crimes largely linked to gangs of Pakistani men over a decade ago. Musk accused the prime minister of being “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes.”
American officials are unable to deliberate on aid as Kiev is being pressed by Russian troops, the newspaper says
A US government shutdown has caused discussions between Washington and Kiev on future weapons deals to be put on hold, as Ukraine “continues to incur devastating losses on the battlefield,” the Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday, citing sources.
Hundreds of thousands of US federal workers were furloughed on Wednesday after Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on spending, particularly in healthcare, with each side blaming the other for the lapse.
The shutdown has reportedly impacted talks on a prospective drone agreement between Washington and Kiev. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Ukrainian officials had arrived in Washington to strike a deal on sharing drone expertise with the US in exchange for royalties or other forms of compensation.
However, talks “have been thrown into uncertainty,” according to The Telegraph. “I don’t see how they will continue,” a Ukrainian source told the paper.
He added that Kiev’s “main concern is we have a lot of discussions ongoing about future shipments [of weapons]… All future projects are a little bit harmed because people from the Pentagon, State Department, and White House are not meeting and we lose the time because of this shutdown.”
Ukrainian officials interviewed by the outlet complained that the talks had ended in limbo amid “unprecedented” Russian attacks, stressing that Kiev needs an uninterrupted flow of weapons.
Ukraine has relied heavily on Western – and especially US – military support since the conflict escalated in 2022. American assistance to Ukraine has faced previous interruptions, most notably in 2024 when congressional disputes over supplemental funding delayed weapons shipments for months. More recently, in February 2025, a tense Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky led to Washington temporarily suspending military aid.
Trump has also been opposed to open-ended US aid to Kiev, insisting that EU nations should buy American weapons to be later handed over to Ukraine.
Moscow has consistently denounced arms shipments and other military support for Ukraine, arguing they only prolong the conflict without changing its outcome while making NATO a direct participant in the hostilities.
The local authorities have reported rising casualties and extensive damage after the storm tore through the country this week
Over 50 people have been killed by Typhoon Bualoi in Vietnam, with 14 missing and 164 injured, the authorities have reported. The storm caused severe destruction across central provinces this week, damaging more than 230,000 houses and submerging farmland.
Government figures released on Friday have estimated the economic cost at 15.9 trillion dong ($603 million) with officials saying the situation is evolving. Nearly 89,000 hectares of rice and other crops have been destroyed and tens of thousands of households remain without power.
Bualoi made landfall earlier this week in the north-central region, striking Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces with winds of up to 133kph and waves reaching 8 meters. The storm forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in coastal and low-lying areas. Four airports were closed, and both air and rail services were suspended.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said flooding and landslides triggered by the typhoon have devastated infrastructure, including roads, schools, and government offices. Relief workers continue to search for survivors in mountainous areas where access is difficult. State media reports that some communities remain cut off.
Vietnam’s central bank has instructed lenders to restructure or freeze loans for businesses affected by the storm. Officials say financial support will be provided to households whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed. International organizations have expressed readiness to assist if requested, though the government has not yet sought outside aid.
Heart-breaking scene in Trung Hạ, Thanh Hoá in Vietnam. You can hear the screams of despair 🥹
Typhoon Bualoi has left at least 30 dead across Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, with Vietnamese officials calling it the most devastating storm to hit the country this year. pic.twitter.com/F4r6wcgUfl
Bualoi has also affected neighboring countries, with seven people reported dead and thousands affected in Thailand. At least 11 people have also been killed by the typhoon in the Philippines.
The death toll from Typhoon Bualoi and the severe flooding it caused has climbed to 51, according to a government report released today.
In Vietnam, the government has mobilized thousands of soldiers, police, and volunteers to assist with relief and recovery. The authorities have warned that further rains could bring additional flooding as rivers remain swollen.
The typhoon is among the strongest to hit Vietnam in recent years, striking during a storm season that often brings several major weather events to the region.
A vessel linked by President Macron to drone sightings in Europe has apparently been released
An oil tanker detained by the French Navy while sailing from Russia in what President Vladimir Putin denounced as an “act of piracy” has resumed its journey, according to maritime tracking data.
According to MarineTraffic, the Benin-flagged ‘Boracay’ is now crossing the Bay of Biscay on its way to the Suez Canal after apparently being released on Thursday evening. The vessel is blacklisted by the EU for allegedly belonging to the so-called “Russian shadow fleet,” a group of tankers Western governments claim Moscow uses to skirt their attempts to throttle its crude exports, including through a price cap.
Putin denounced the interception of the vessel during his remarks at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday. He argued that France had neither jurisdiction nor justification to seize the ship and dismissed claims of Russian ownership as dubious.
Putin further suggested that President Emmanuel Macron was exploiting anti-Russian rhetoric to distract from domestic issues. The French leader is seeking “to provoke us into some actions and then tell the French: ‘Rally around me, I’ll lead you to victory’. Like Napoleon,” Putin explained.
Macron linked the tanker to sightings of mystery drones over Denmark, noting that its voyage from the Russian port of Primorsk took it past the Nordic country. Putin rejected the allegation, asserting that the vessel could not be transporting military cargo.
Brightly lit drones have been reported recently over sensitive sites in Denmark, Germany, and Norway. This week, EU leaders met in Copenhagen to discuss the so-called “drone wall” initiative, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen endorsed in her State of the Union speech last month.
News reports indicate the proposal quickly ran into skepticism over feasibility and funding – or “crashed into EU reality,” as Politico put it.
Moscow has accused Brussels of resorting to fearmongering to justify militarization and to sustain aid for Ukraine at the expense of member states’ domestic priorities.
Washington wants a special economic zone in Lebanon, promising development in exchange for security – which it can’t provide
The US wants to create a special economic zone in southern Lebanon as an incentive to push the government to disarm Hezbollah.
The idea, first floated by US presidential envoy Tom Barrack on a September visit to Beirut, rests on a straightforward bargain: security in exchange for development. In line with UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the state would gradually reduce armed activity along the border and restore full army control over the south, and in return attract investment, business tax incentives, and political backing from partners including Gulf countries and Eastern Mediterranean initiatives.
To make this work, the zone is legally constituted with clear boundaries, unified rules on land and property, transparent tax and customs regimes, and straightforward jurisdiction and arbitration.
Financing blends grants, concessional loans, and private capital, backed by risk-mitigation tools and transparent procurement. Nationwide needs exceed $20 billion, of which roughly $10-11 billion would restart the economy and about $7 billion would rebuild the south, alongside an anticipated $3 billion program from the IMF.
Delivery would then take place in three phases, from stabilization and the legal package in the first six months, to opening initial sites within 18 months. It would then be scaled up from year two, under quarterly public reporting with independent verification.
The proposed framework stands on four pillars – a legally clear zone, security as a precondition for each step, social guarantees for residents, and phased financing tied to verified results – so that growth becomes a real alternative to the recurring cycle of escalations.
The logic is straightforward. The plan calls for a legally defined zone with clear boundaries, governance led by Lebanese institutions with external support, security as a prerequisite at every step, social guarantees for residents and staged financing tied to verified results with clearly measurable financial indicators.
In many respects the plan resembles the approach used in Egypt and Jordan through the qualifying industrial Zone model, where duty-free access to the US market depended on an obligatory share of Israeli inputs and a total threshold of at least 35% local value-added. The common thread is an exchange of political and security steps for economic preferences, a focus on quick export gains, and the idea of using external investors as anchors for growth. In both cases, experience showed a narrow sector base dominated by apparel, weak spillovers into the broader economy, sensitivity of supply chains to politics, and rising transaction costs due to complex rules of origin and administrative hurdles. Without clear boundaries, transparent governance, diversified production, and solid social protections, the new project risks repeating old limits instead of becoming a platform for long-term growth.
The administration of Donald Trump approaches the Middle East as a landscape of incentives and deals with a focus on economics, profit, and fast investment signals. This lens is familiar to business, but it sits poorly with the historical memory and political psychology of a region where security, dignity, sovereignty, and the experience of war are not add-ons to the economy but its precondition. When people are offered industrial zones and tax relief before the central questions of war and peace are settled, the offer is often read as an attempt to sidestep the conflict rather than resolve it.
No special economic zone can become a platform for durable growth without a full peace between Lebanon and Israel and without a clear plan for the post-conflict order. Money and investors are not enough. The project would also need legally grounded security along the border, a clear regime for the residents of frontier villages mechanisms for the return of displaced families demining working channels for de-escalation and implementation of Resolution 1701. Without these elements any economy instead of war turns into an economy beside a war which in Lebanon has repeatedly ended in reversals.
The history of the Lebanese-Israeli conflict explains why society remains wary. After the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and the arrival of Palestinian armed groups in Lebanon during the 1970s came Israel’s Operation Litani in 1978 and the 1982 invasion with a long occupation of the south and a security zone that lasted until 2000. In 2006, a new war followed the capture of Israeli soldiers and left thousands dead and major infrastructure in ruins. What emerged afterward was a fragile structure that combined Resolution 1701, the UNIFIL mandate, and periodic flare ups. Since 2023, crossfire along the border has again become chronic and each new rocket or air incident cancels investment promises almost at once.
In this setting, it is hard to expect public support in Lebanon while Israel’s military campaign in Gaza continues, and while strikes on Hamas-linked targets take place in Syria and beyond. The region watches not only diplomacy but also operations against movement leaders outside Gaza, including high-profile incidents in neighboring states, which reinforces the sense of a widening war. As long as reports from the southern frontier and from Gaza arrive more often than news of a ceasefire and a political accord, the message of zone first and peace later will be seen as out of order. For Lebanon and Israel, a viable economic project can exist only as a result of a political settlement rather than as its substitute.
There is also an ideological layer. Within Israeli nationalist discourse one sometimes hears about a supposed natural northern border along the Litani River, which draws on biblical geography and on a language of historical entitlement. Even when such claims remain marginal they loosen the ground for talks. Beirut hears not a guarantee of inviolability but a potential revision of the status quo in the south.
The formula of money for peace does not work. While the campaign in Gaza continues, while strikes in Syria persist, and while headline-grabbing actions outside the immediate battle zone take place, including the recent attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, it is unrealistic to expect Lebanese society to accept an economic project in place of a political settlement. In the memory and daily life of the Lebanese there is the January killing of Saleh al Arouri in Beirut and the constant news of raids across borders. All this feeds the belief that credible guarantees of peace are still out of reach.
Some analysts say that Hezbollah has taken losses and is losing initiative. Even so, trust in American initiatives remains weak and the prospect of a formal peace with Israel is not a serious topic in domestic debate while the region lives in a mode of blows without borders. Without a legally framed peace between Lebanon and Israel and without a full post-conflict settlement no special economic zone can serve as a lasting pillar. At best, it would become a temporary backdrop to a continuing war. In this sense the administrations economic approach based on incentives profit and a project mindset runs up against a basic truth of the Middle East. The economy does not replace security, memory and sovereignty. It follows them.
LaWhore Vagistan was invited to the Ivy League school amid a funding clash with the White House
Harvard University’s plan to host a visiting drag queen professor for courses on queer ethnography and the cultural impact of a long-running drag reality show remains on track despite the Trump administration’s policy of opposing ‘woke ideology’.
The Ivy League institution is currently in a legal battle with the administration of US President Donald Trump over billions in federal funding that it is seeking to cut on various grounds.
Harvard’s invitation to Kareem Khubchandani – an associate professor at Tufts University who also performs in drag as LaWhore Vagistan – was made in July and was highlighted this week by the New York Post and other outlets. Khubchandani, whose scholarship and activism focus on queer life, will teach queer ethnography this fall and a course on RuPaul’s Drag Race in the spring 2026 semester.
According to the New York Post, Khubchandani has made his drag persona “an integral part of their pedagogy.” In interviews, the professor has explained that ‘LaWhore’ is a risque play on the name of the Pakistani city of Lahore, while ‘Vagistan’ refers to the Indian subcontinent imagined as female genitalia.
In a 2022 article titled ‘The Sexual Experiment at the Ivy Leagues’, National Interest magazine cited Khubchandani as an example of academics turning US universities into “incubators of gender fundamentalists,” arguing that students are being equipped with “ever-expanding terminology for sexual orientation” and encouraged to pursue activism “without cultivating a sense of intellectual humility.”
