BERLIN: Bayern Munich equalled the European record for successive wins to start a season as they beat 10-man Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-0 on Saturday.In the late game, Maximilian Beier scored in the sixth minute of stoppage time to send Borussia Dortmund up to third with a 1-0 home win over promoted Cologne. RB Leipzig stayed second with a 6-0 win at Augsburg. In Moenchengladbach, Joshua Kimmich, Raphael Guerreiro and teenager Lennart Karl all scored in the final half hour as Bayern made it 13 wins from 13 games in all competitions, a feat last achieved by AC Milan at the start of the 1992-93 season. The win meant Bayern stayed five points clear of second-placed RB Leipzig at the top of the table. The home team&#39;s Jens Castrop sunk his studs into Luis Diaz&#39;s shin with 19 minutes gone and was sent off when his yellow card was upgraded to red after a VAR review. Despite the one-man advantage, Bayern&mdash;who made six changes, including Jonas Urbig replacing captain Manuel Neuer in goal&mdash;lacked fluidity against their last-placed opponents. &quot;After the red card, the entire stadium celebrated every duel won and every save by their &#39;keeper,&quot; Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said. &quot;There were a lot of emotions&mdash;we stayed calm. When we got our chances, we took them.&quot; It was only the second time this season Harry Kane, who had a goal chalked off for offside in the second half, had failed to score. Kimmich put the visitors ahead after 64 minutes, blasting through a crowded penalty box, and Guerreiro added another five minutes later, sweeping in to finish off a lovely team move. Gladbach&#39;s hopes of getting something out of the match were dashed further when Kevin Stoeger hit a penalty at the post with 15 minutes left. With nine minutes remaining, 17-year-old Karl produced a stunning curling strike to wrap up the match for the defending champions. Dortmund win late&mdash;Dortmund, who lost their first match of the season last Saturday at Bayern, looked set to lose further ground on the league leaders as the clock wound down against visiting Cologne. Dortmund were camped around the visitors&#39; goal in the last 30 minutes but could not make the pressure count, with Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwaebe keeping the hosts at bay. Cologne&#39;s Timo Huebers was stretchered off in the final 10 minutes with a knee injury, forcing the visitors, who had already made all of their changes, to play a man down. With the match entering the seventh and final stoppage-time minute, Beier cut a low shot across the grass and into the goal to send the 82,000-strong Westfalenstadion into raptures. RB Leipzig romped to a 6-0 win at Augsburg with six different goalscorers, tightening their grip on second spot. Yan Diomande, Romulo, Antonio Nusa, Christoph Baumgartner, Assan Ouedraogo, and Castello Lukeba all netted as Leipzig inflicted Augsburg&#39;s worst home defeat in league history. Since losing 6-0 to Bayern in the season opener, Leipzig has claimed 19 of a possible 21 points in seven games, conceding just three goals. Eintracht Frankfurt bounced back from Wednesday&#39;s 5-1 Champions League thumping by Liverpool to beat St. Pauli 2-0 at home thanks to a double from Jonathan Burkardt. Germany striker Burkardt, who also scored a double last week against Freiburg, has six goals in seven league games this season. Elsewhere, Wolfsburg won their first match since August with a 1-0 victory at Hamburg, with Adam Daghim scoring the only goal. Hamburg winger Ransford-Yeboah Koenigsdoerffer missed a first-half penalty, the third time in a row he has failed to convert from the spot. Hoffenheim beat lowly Heidenheim 3-1.

Football

Bayern Munich beat 10-man Moenchengladbach 3-0 to equal a European record with 13 straight wins, staying five points clear of RB Leipzig, while Dortmund and Leipzig also secured impressive victories

Bayern beat 10-man Gladbach to match European record

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the world&rsquo;s largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. Zhao had asked Trump for a pardon previously. He has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September. Trump&rsquo;s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar. World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance. Zhao also has publicly said that he had asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the Biden administration prosecuted Zhao out of a &ldquo;desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry.&rdquo; She said there were &ldquo;no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,&rdquo; though Zhao had pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program. &ldquo;I failed here,&rdquo; Zhao told the court last year. &ldquo;I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.&rdquo;

Americas

President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who served prison time for anti–money laundering failures. Zhao’s ties to Trump’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, and a $2 billion UAE investment in Binance raise major ethical questions

Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao

SAN FRANCISCO: Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI and three other entities on Wednesday, alleging their involvement in an &ldquo;industrial-scale, unlawful&rdquo; economy to &ldquo;scrape&rdquo; the comments of millions of Reddit users for commercial gain. Reddit&#39;s lawsuit in a New York federal court takes aim at San Francisco-based Perplexity, maker of an AI chatbot and &ldquo;answer engine&rdquo; that competes with Google, ChatGPT and others in online search. Also named in the lawsuit are Lithuanian data-scraping company Oxylabs UAB, a web domain called AWMProxy that Reddit describes as a &ldquo;former Russian botnet,&rdquo; and Texas-based startup SerpApi, which lists Perplexity as a customer on its website. It&#39;s the second such lawsuit from Reddit since it sued another major AI company, Anthropic, in June. But the lawsuit filed Wednesday is different in the way that it confronts not just an AI company but the lesser-known services the AI industry relies on to acquire online writings needed to train AI chatbots. &ldquo;Scrapers bypass technological protections to steal data, then sell it to clients hungry for training material. Reddit is a prime target because it&rsquo;s one of the largest and most dynamic collections of human conversation ever created,&rdquo; said Ben Lee, Reddit&rsquo;s chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday. The lawsuit accuses the companies of unfair competition and unjust enrichment and alleges that some of them violated U.S. copyright laws. Perplexity said it has not yet received the lawsuit but &ldquo;will always fight vigorously for users&rsquo; rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge. Our approach remains principled and responsible as we provide factual answers with accurate AI, and we will not tolerate threats against openness and the public interest.&rdquo; SerpApi&#39;s customer success director, Ryan Schafer, said in an email: &ldquo;We strongly disagree with Reddit&rsquo;s allegations and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court.&rdquo; Oxylabs said in a statement it was &ldquo;shocked and disappointed&rdquo; and &ldquo;will not hesitate to defend itself against these allegations.&rdquo; &ldquo;Oxylabs&rsquo; position is that no company should claim ownership of public data that does not belong to them,&rdquo; said a statement from Denas Grybauskas, the company&#39;s chief governance and strategy officer. &ldquo;It is possible that it is just an attempt to sell the same public data at an inflated price.&rdquo; AWMProxy could not immediately be reached for comment. Scraping for publicly available online data is a common practice used by businesses and researchers but Reddit compares the companies it is suing to &ldquo;would-be bank robbers&rdquo; who can&#39;t get into the bank vault, so they break into the armored truck instead. The lawsuit alleges they are evading Reddit&rsquo;s own anti-scraping measures while also &rdquo;circumventing Google&rsquo;s controls and scraping Reddit content directly from Google&rsquo;s search engine results.&quot; Lee said that because they&#39;re unable to scrape Reddit directly, &ldquo;they mask their identities, hide their locations, and disguise their web scrapers to steal Reddit content from Google Search. Perplexity is a willing customer of at least one of these scrapers, choosing to buy stolen data rather than enter into a lawful agreement with Reddit itself.&rdquo; Reddit made a similar argument in its lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging that the company ignored Reddit&#39;s appeals to cease using its content. That case was initially filed in California Superior Court but was later moved to federal court and has a hearing scheduled for January. Along with digitized books and news articles, websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language. Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI and other companies that are paying to be able to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddit&rsquo;s more than 100 million daily users. The licensing deals helped the 20-year-old online platform raise money ahead of its Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company last year.

Artificial Intelligence

Reddit sued Perplexity AI, Oxylabs, SerpApi, and AWMProxy, accusing them of illegally scraping millions of Reddit comments for AI training data. The lawsuit highlights growing tensions between content platforms and AI firms over data ownership and access

Reddit sues Perplexity for 'industrial-scale' scraping of user comments 

RAWALPINDI: The No. 11 batter Kagiso Rabada and Senuran Muthusamy hit career-best half-centuries as South Africa scripted one of its most memorable comebacks to dominate Pakistan on Day 3 of the second and final test.&nbsp;South Africa was all out Wednesday for 404 in its first innings &mdash; having resumed on 185-4 and being reduced to 235-8 and 306-9 &mdash; to take a 71-run lead. Pakistan&#39;s left-arm spinner Asif Afridi claimed six wickets and became the oldest bowler in test cricket to grab a five-wicket haul in his debut test at the age of 38.&nbsp;Pakistan collapsed to 94-4 in its second innings at stumps. Off-spinner Simon Harmer took 3-26 and Rabada had Abdullah Shafique caught in the slips cordon in his incisive opening spell with the new ball.&nbsp;Babar Azam, who hasn&rsquo;t scored an international century in more than two years, is 49 not out and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan undefeated on 16 as the pair led Pakistan&#39;s resistance.&nbsp;South Africa earlier fought back in a match where Pakistan had won the important toss on a spinning wicket.&nbsp;Afridi (6-79) had put Pakistan in sight of a meaningful first-innings lead before the home team ran into Muthusamy and Rabada&rsquo;s electrifying 98-run last wicket stand.&nbsp;Muthusamy made an unbeaten 89 off 155 balls and Rabada smashed four sixes and four boundaries in his belligerent 71 off 61 as the Proteas bid to level the two-match series.&nbsp;Afridi&rsquo;s five-wicket haul saw World Test Championship winner South Africa slipping to 221-7 in 80 overs before Pakistan&rsquo;s ploy to finish off the innings with the second new ball misfired badly.&nbsp;Muthusamy cut Pakistan&#39;s lead to 27 when he shared a 71-run ninth-wicket stand with Keshav Maharaj, who gave at least three chances and went on to score 30. Rabada blunted the pace of Shaheen Shah Afridi and the spinners with his first test 50.&nbsp;It was only the second time in test matches that both the ninth and 10th wickets shared partnerships of 50-plus in a test innings.&nbsp;South Africa went to lunch 48 runs behind with two wickets in hand, but Muthusamy swept and reverse swept against the spinners with ease and Rabada didn&rsquo;t spare the bowlers before he holed out to long-on at the stroke of tea that ended a superb counterattack from South Africa.&nbsp;Record haulAfridi became only the sixth Pakistani spinner after Mohammad Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Bilal Asif, Noman Ali and Abrar Ahmed to grab a five-wicket haul in a debut test after South Africa resumed on 185-4.&nbsp;In doing so, he beat the test record set by England legspinner Charles Marriott, who returned 5-37 on debut against West Indies in 1933 at the age of 37.&nbsp;Afridi&rsquo;s sliders baffled the South Africa batters as he struck on the fourth ball of the day, finding the outside edge of Kyle Verreynne&rsquo;s (10) bat.&nbsp;Tristan Stubbs (76) added eight to his overnight 68 before he was undone by another straight delivery as he tried to flick the left-arm spinner off the back foot and was out leg before wicket.&nbsp;Afridi then celebrated his memorable five-wicket haul when Harmer (2) went for a sweep but was struck on the back leg directly in front of the stumps.&nbsp;Pakistan took the second new ball and Noman Ali finally got his first wicket when he had Marco Jansen lbw.&nbsp;Pakistan leads the two-match series after a win in Lahore last week.

South Africa's Kagiso Rabada, left, plays a shot as Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan watches during the third day of the second test cricket match between Pakistan and South Africa, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, October 22, 2025. (AP)

Cricket

Pakistan collapsed to 94-4 in its second innings at stumps. Off-spinner Simon Harmer took 3-26 and Rabada had Abdullah Shafique caught in the slips cordon in his incisive opening spell with the new ball.

Rabada hits first test 50 to lead South Africa's comeback vs Pakistan

RAMALLAH: Illegal Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists this week in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, beating them with clubs in an attack Palestinian health officials said sent at least one woman to the hospital with serious injuries. The attack Sunday in the town of Turmus Ayya, which was captured in videos obtained by The Associated Press, came as Palestinians say settler violence in the region is worsening. The United Nations and rights groups have raised the alarm as harvest season begins and Palestinian farmers are at growing risk while gathering olives.&nbsp;Settler violence skyrockets&nbsp;&ldquo;Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency,&quot; Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement released Tuesday. &ldquo;Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children, and foreign solidarity activists.&quot; In one of the videos obtained by the AP, a masked man was seen running through an olive grove and beating at least two people with a club, including a woman as she lay motionless on the ground. The masked man appeared to be wearing tzitzit, a ritual fringed garment for Jews.&nbsp;The woman was hospitalized with serious injuries, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said. Torched carsIn a separate video, more than a dozen masked men were seen running down a village road alongside an olive grove, pursuing a car. One settler clubbed the car and opened the door. A passenger managed to escape and run away with the group of men running after him. A third video showed flames and smoke rising from several torched cars. Israel&rsquo;s Channel 12 reported that the head of the West Bank police force said in an internal police WhatsApp group that the footage of the masked settler beating the woman &ldquo;kept him up at night&rdquo; and instructed officers to bring the settler to justice. Israel&#39;s military and police did not respond to an AP request for comment on the attack.&nbsp;Palestinian American population&nbsp;Turmus Ayya, whose population is predominantly Palestinian American, has long been a target of settler attacks, but villagers say the violence worsened during the Israel-Hamas war. It is nestled in a valley surrounded by hilltops crowned with Israeli settlements and outposts. Since the killing of a 14-year-old Palestinian-American, Amer Rabee, by Israeli forces in the town in April, protests against settler violence and the military&#39;s perceived failure to curb it have provoked regular clashes with settlers. More broadly, settler violence is surging across the West Bank.&nbsp;Over 750 settler attacks&nbsp;The UN says the first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage &mdash; a 13% increase compared with the same period last year. The first week of olive harvest season has seen more than 150 settler attacks and over 700 olive trees uprooted, broken, or poisoned, according to Muayyad Shaaban, who heads an office in the Palestinian Authority that is tracking the violence. Israel captured the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast War. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Settler advocates hold key Israeli Cabinet positions that grant them and the settlers an essential say over the West Bank.

Middle East

UN says first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage; settler advocates hold key Israeli Cabinet positions that grant them and the settlers an important say over the West Bank. 

Illegal Israeli settlers beat Palestinian farmers on video as attacks mount 

KIRYAT GAT: US Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday called progress in Gaza&rsquo;s fragile ceasefire better than anticipated but acknowledged during an Israel visit the challenges that remain, from disarming Hamas to rebuilding a land devastated by two years of war. Vance noted flareups of violence in recent days but said the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that began on Oct. 10 is going &ldquo;better than I expected.&rdquo; The Trump administration&#39;s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, added that &ldquo;we are exceeding where we thought we would be at this time.&rdquo; They visited a new center in Israel for civilian and military cooperation as questions remain over the long-term plan for peace, including when and how an international security force will deploy to Gaza and who will govern the territory after the war. Vance tried to downplay any idea that his visit &mdash; his first as vice president &mdash; was urgently arranged to keep the ceasefire in place. He said he feels &ldquo;confident that we&rsquo;re going to be in a place where this peace lasts,&rdquo; but warned that if Hamas doesn&rsquo;t cooperate, it will be &ldquo;obliterated.&rdquo; Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s son-in-law and one of the architects of the ceasefire agreement, noted its complexity: &ldquo;Both sides are transitioning from two years of very intense warfare to now a peacetime posture.&quot; Vance is expected to stay in the region until Thursday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. On Tuesday, Netanyahu fired his national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, but gave no reason for the decision. Israeli media said Hanegbi had opposed the renewal of Israel&rsquo;s Gaza offensive in March, and Israel&rsquo;s failed attempt to assassinate Hamas&rsquo; leadership in an airstrike in Qatar in September. In a statement, Hanegbi noted &ldquo;times of disagreement&rdquo; with Netanyahu. Hamas hands over remains of 2 more hostagesLate Tuesday, Israel&rsquo;s military said the remains of two more Gaza hostages had been returned to Israel, where they would be identified. Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Another 13 still need to be recovered in Gaza and handed over. On his visit to Israel on Tuesday, Vance urged a &ldquo;little bit of patience&rdquo; amid Israeli frustration with Hamas&rsquo; pace of returning the hostages. &ldquo;Some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages, nobody even knows where they are,&rdquo; Vance said. Israel is releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the remains of each dead hostage, according to Gaza&rsquo;s Health Ministry. It said on Tuesday that Israel had so far transferred 165 bodies since earlier this month. As he faced journalists&#39; questions over the ceasefire&#39;s next steps, he said &ldquo;a lot of this work is very hard&quot; and urged flexibility. &ldquo;Once we&rsquo;ve got to a point where both the Gazans and our Israeli friends can have some measure of security, then we&rsquo;ll worry about what the long-term governance of Gaza is,&quot; he said. &quot;Let&rsquo;s focus on security, rebuilding, giving people some food and medicine.&rdquo; Although some 200 US troops were recently sent to Israel, Vance emphasized that they would not be on the ground in Gaza. But he said officials are beginning to &quot;conceptualize what that international security force would look like&quot; for the territory. He mentioned Turkey and Indonesia as countries expected to participate. The flags of Jordan, Germany, Britain and Denmark were on the stage where he spoke. Britain said late Tuesday it would send a small contingent of military officers to Israel to assist in monitoring the ceasefire. While the ceasefire has been tested by fighting and mutual accusations of violations, both Israel and Hamas have said they are committed to the deal. Aid into Gaza increases, while prices riseInternational organizations said they were scaling up humanitarian aid entering Gaza, while Hamas-led security forces cracked down against what it called price gouging by private merchants. The World Food Program said it had sent more than 530 trucks into Gaza in the past 10 days, enough to feed nearly half a million people for two weeks. That&#39;s well under the 500 to 600 that entered daily before the war. The WFP also said it had reinstated 26 distribution points across Gaza and hopes to scale up to its previous 145 points as soon as possible. Residents said prices for essential goods soared on Sunday after militants killed two Israeli soldiers and Israel responded with strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel also threatened to halt humanitarian aid. At a market in the central city of Deir al-Balah, a 25-kilogram (55-pound) package of flour was selling for more than $70 on Sunday, up from about $12 shortly after the ceasefire. By Tuesday, the price was around $30. Mohamed al-Faqawi, a Khan Younis resident, accused merchants of taking advantage of the perilous security situation. &ldquo;They are exploiting us,&rdquo; he said. On Monday, Hamas said its security forces raided shops across Gaza, closing some and forcing merchants to lower prices. Hamas also has allowed aid trucks to move safely and halted looting of deliveries. Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza&rsquo;s private truckers&rsquo; union, said there was no stealing aid since the ceasefire started. But other significant challenges remain as Gaza&#39;s financial system is in tatters. With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people pay exorbitant commissions to a network of cash brokers to get money for daily expenses. On Tuesday, dozens of people in Deir al-Balah spent hours in line at the Bank of Palestine hoping to access their money but were turned away. &ldquo;Without having the bank open and without money, it does not matter that the prices (in the market) have dropped,&rdquo; said Kamilia Al-Ajez. Gaza doctors say bodies returned with signs of tortureA senior health official in Gaza said some bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel bore &ldquo;evidence of torture&rdquo; and called for a United Nations investigation. Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, the health ministry&#39;s general director, said on social media late Monday that some had evidence of being bound with ropes and metal shackles, and had deep wounds and crushed limbs. It was not immediately clear if any of the bodies had been prisoners; they are returned without identification or details on how they died. The bodies could include Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody or bodies taken out of Gaza by Israeli troops during the war. The Israel Prisons Service denied that prisoners had been mistreated, saying it had followed legal procedures and provided medical care and &ldquo;adequate living conditions.&rdquo; Israeli hostages released from Gaza have also reported metal shackles and harsh conditions, including frequent beatings and starvation. In the 2023 attack on Israel that started the war, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages. The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza&rsquo;s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

US Vice President JD Vance said Gaza’s ceasefire is progressing better than expected but warned of “very hard” work ahead, including disarming Hamas, rebuilding Gaza, and forming an international security force to maintain peace.

US vice president optimistic about Gaza ceasefire, notes 'very hard' work to come

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">SEOUL:&nbsp;North Korea performed its first ballistic missile tests in five months Wednesday, days before US President Donald Trump and other leaders are expected to meet in South Korea. South Korea&rsquo;s military said it detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles that were launched from an area south of Pyongyang and flew about 350 kilometers (220 miles) toward the northeast. The South&rsquo;s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn&rsquo;t release more specific flight details but said the missiles didn&rsquo;t land in the sea. The Joint Chiefs added that the South&#39;s military remains ready to repel any provocations by North Korea based on its solid military alliance with the United States. Japan&rsquo;s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters that Tokyo was closely communicating with Washington and Seoul, including by sharing real-time missile warning data. North Korea didn&rsquo;t immediately comment on the launches. Trump is to leave for Asia at the end of the week in the first trip to the region of his second term. He plans to go to Malaysia first for a regional summit, and then head to Japan before travelling on to South Korea for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, an annual summit meant to promote economic integration and trade. Trump was expected to visit the South Korean city of Gyeongju ahead of the summit for bilateral meetings with leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, but South Korean officials say Trump won&#39;t likely attend APEC&#39;s main conference set for Oct. 30-Nov. 1. Experts earlier said North Korea could conduct provocative missile tests before or during the APEC summit to underscore its commitment to gain recognition as a nuclear weapons state. Experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would need that status to call for the UN to lift the economic sanctions punishing it for its weapons program. Wednesday&#39;s ballistic missile launches by North Korea were the first of their kind since the country on May 8 tested short-range systems that simulated nuclear counterstrikes against US and South Korean forces. They were also North Korea&#39;s first ballistic missile testing activities since Lee took office in June with a promise to push to restore peace on the Korean Peninsula. Kim has been sharply accelerating the pace of weapons tests since his high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over the U.S.-led economic sanctions. But last month, Kim suggested he could return to talks if the US drops its demand for North Korea&#39;s denuclearization, after Trump repeatedly expressed his hopes for new diplomacy. Earlier this month, Kim displayed a new intercontinental ballistic missile at a military parade attended by Chinese, Russian and other top officials. The parade highlighted Kim&rsquo;s growing diplomatic footing and his relentless drive to build a reliable arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the US and its allies. North Korea&#39;s state media said the Oct. 10 parade featured the Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it described as the country&rsquo;s &ldquo;most powerful nuclear strategic weapon system.&rdquo; Observers said the new ICBM is designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to defeat US missile defenses and that North Korea could test-launch it in coming months.<figure class="fr-media"> </figure>

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Asia

North Korea performed its first ballistic missile tests in five months Wednesday, days before US President Donald Trump and other leaders are expected to meet in South Korea.

North Korea test-fires ballistic missiles ahead of Trump's Asia trip

<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;' id="isPasted"><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">WASHINGTON:&nbsp;A man was taken into custody late Tuesday after driving his car into a security barrier outside the White House, authorities said.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>The US Secret Service said the man crashed into the security gate at a White House entrance at 10:37 p.m. on Tuesday. The man was immediately arrested by officers from the Secret Service&rsquo;s uniformed division, the agency said.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>Investigators searched his car and deemed it to be safe, Secret Service officials said in a statement.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>Authorities did not immediately provide any additional information about the crash, the driver&rsquo;s identity or any potential motivation.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's husband George Akerlof at the East Wing of the White House in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021, across from the Treasury building. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

A man was taken into custody after driving his car into a security barrier outside the White House.

Man taken into custody after crashing car into security gate outside White House

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s plan for a swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin is on hold, a US official said on Tuesday, the latest twist in his stop-and-go effort to resolve the war in Ukraine.&nbsp;The meeting was announced last week and was supposed to take place in Budapest, Hungary, in the near future. However, the idea was paused after a call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to the official, who wasn&rsquo;t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.&nbsp;The decision to hold off on a meeting between Trump and Putin will likely relieve European leaders, who have accused Putin of stalling for time with diplomacy while trying to gain ground on the battlefield.&nbsp;The leaders &mdash; including the British prime minister, French president and German chancellor &mdash; said they opposed any push to make Ukraine surrender land captured by Russian forces in return for peace, as Trump has occasionally suggested.&nbsp;They also plan to push forward with plans to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine&rsquo;s war efforts, despite some misgivings about the legality and consequences of such a step.&nbsp;Trump has not yet commented publicly about the change in plans for his meeting with Putin. They previously met in Alaska in August, but the encounter did not advance Trump&rsquo;s stalled attempts to end a war that began almost four years ago.&nbsp;The Kremlin didn&rsquo;t seem to be in a rush to get Trump and Putin together again either. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that &ldquo;preparation is needed, serious preparation&rdquo; before a meeting.&nbsp;Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been trying to strengthen Ukraine&#39;s position by seeking long-range Tomahawk missiles from the US, although Trump has waffled on whether he would provide them.&nbsp;&ldquo;We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,&rdquo; Zelenskyy said on Tuesday in a Telegram post.&nbsp;He noted that Putin returned to diplomacy and called Trump last week when it looked like Tomahawk missiles were a possibility. But &quot;as soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to drop diplomacy, postpone the dialogue,&rdquo; Zelenskyy said.&nbsp;On Wednesday, Trump will hold talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, according to a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official did not provide any detail about Trump&rsquo;s agenda for the talks.&nbsp;The military alliance has been coordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them purchased from the US by Canada and European countries. A meeting of the Coalition of the Willing &mdash; a group of 35 countries who support Ukraine &mdash; is due to take place in London on Friday.&nbsp;Trump&#39;s stance on the war has shifted throughout the year. He initially focused on pressuring Ukraine to make concessions, but then grew frustrated with Putin&#39;s intransigence. Trump often complains that he thought his good relationship with his Russian counterpart would have made it easier to end the war.&nbsp;Last month, Trump reversed his long-held position that Ukraine would have to give up land and suggested it could win back all the territory it has lost to Russia. But after a phone call with Putin last week and a subsequent meeting with Zelenskyy on Friday, Trump shifted his position again and called on Kyiv and Moscow to &ldquo;stop where they are&rdquo; in the more than three-year war.&nbsp;On Sunday, Trump said the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine should be &ldquo;cut up,&rdquo; leaving most of it in Russian hands.&nbsp;Trump said on Monday that while he thinks it is possible that Ukraine can ultimately defeat Russia, he&rsquo;s now doubtful it will happen.&nbsp;Ukrainian and European leaders are trying hard to keep Trump on their side.&nbsp;&ldquo;We strongly support President Trump&rsquo;s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,&rdquo; the leaders&#39; statement said. &ldquo;We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction.&quot;&nbsp;Russia occupies about one fifth of Ukraine, but carving up their country in return for peace is unacceptable to Kyiv officials.&nbsp;Also, a conflict frozen on the current front line could fester, with occupied areas of Ukraine offering Moscow a springboard for new attacks in the future, Ukrainian and European officials fear.&nbsp;The statement by the leaders of Ukraine, the UK, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Denmark and EU officials came early in what Zelenskyy said Monday would be a week that is &ldquo;very active in diplomacy.&rdquo;&nbsp;More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be discussed at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.&nbsp;&ldquo;We must ramp up the pressure on Russia&rsquo;s economy and its defense industry, until Putin is ready to make peace,&rdquo; Tuesday&rsquo;s statement said.&nbsp;

Europe

Idea paused after call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, official says.

Trump-Putin summit planned for Budapest on hold 

OpenAI said Tuesday it is introducing its own web browser, Atlas, putting the ChatGPT maker in direct competition with Google as more internet users rely on artificial intelligence to answer their questions.&nbsp;Making itself a gateway to online searches could allow OpenAI, the world&#39;s most valuable startup, to pull in more internet traffic and the revenue made from digital advertising.&nbsp;OpenAI has said ChatGPT already has more than 800 million users, but many of them get it for free. The San Francisco-based company is losing more money than it makes and has been looking for ways to turn a profit.&nbsp;OpenAI said Atlas launches Tuesday on Apple laptops and will later come to Microsoft&rsquo;s Windows, Apple&rsquo;s iOS phone operating system and Google&rsquo;s Android phone system.&nbsp;OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called it a &ldquo;rare, once-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be about and how to use one.&rdquo;&nbsp;OpenAI&rsquo;s browser is coming out just a few months after one of its executives testified that the company would be interested in buying Google&rsquo;s industry-leading Chrome browser if a federal judge had required it to be sold to prevent the abuses that resulted in Google&rsquo;s ubiquitous search engine being declared an illegal monopoly.&nbsp;But U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta last month issued a decision that rejected the Chrome sale sought by the U.S. Justice Department in the monopoly case, partly because he believed advances in the AI industry already are reshaping the competitive landscape.&nbsp;OpenAI&rsquo;s browser will face a daunting challenge against Chrome, which has amassed about 3 billion worldwide users and has been adding some AI features from Google&rsquo;s Gemini technology.&nbsp;Chrome&rsquo;s immense success could provide a blueprint for OpenAI as it enters the browser market. When Google released Chrome in 2008, Microsoft&rsquo;s Internet Explorer was so dominant that few observers believed a new browser could mount a formidable threat.&nbsp;But Chrome quickly won over legions of admirers by loading webpages more quickly than Internet Explorer while offering other advantages that enabled it to upend the market. Microsoft ended up abandoning Explorer and introducing its Edge browser, which operates similarly to Chrome.&nbsp;Perplexity, another smaller AI startup, rolled out its own Comet browser earlier this year. It also expressed interest in buying Chrome and eventually submitted an unsolicited $34.5 billion offer for the browser that hit a dead end when Mehta decided against a Google breakup.&nbsp;A premium feature of the ChatGPT Atlas browser is an &ldquo;agent mode&rdquo; that accesses the laptop and effectively clicks around the internet on the person&rsquo;s behalf, armed with what it has learned from users&rsquo; browser history and what they are seeking to learn, and explaining its process as it searches.&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s using the internet for you,&rdquo; Altman said.

OpenAI is introducing its own web browser, Atlas, putting the ChatGPT maker in direct competition with Google 

OpenAI launches web browser to compete with Google Chrome

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Tajikistan&rsquo;s Foreign Ministry has condemned an armed drone attack launched from Afghanistan that killed three Chinese workers in the country&rsquo;s southern Khatlon region, calling on Afghan authorities to take &ldquo;effective measures&rdquo; to secure the shared border.&nbsp;In a statement issued on Thursday, the ministry said the assault occurred late Wednesday, when an unmanned aerial vehicle &ldquo;equipped with grenades and firearms&rdquo; struck the employees&rsquo; camp of LLC Shohin SM near the 1st Border Guard Post Istiqlol of the Yol Border Detachment.&nbsp;&ldquo;As a result of the attack, three employees of the LLC Shohin SM of Chinese citizenship were killed,&rdquo; the statement said. Tajikistan described the incident as an operation conducted &ldquo;from the territory of Afghanistan.&rdquo;&nbsp;The ministry noted that, despite Tajikistan&rsquo;s &ldquo;constant efforts&hellip; to maintain security and create an atmosphere of peace and stability&rdquo; along the frontier, &ldquo;disruptive actions by criminal groups located in the territory of Afghanistan still continue.&rdquo;&nbsp;Expressing &ldquo;deep concerns,&rdquo; the Tajik government said it &ldquo;strongly condemns these acts of terrorist groups&rdquo; and urged Afghanistan&rsquo;s de facto authorities &ldquo;to take effective measures to ensure stability and security on the state border between two neighboring countries.&rdquo;

Central Asia

Tajikistan condemned a deadly drone attack launched from Afghanistan that killed three Chinese workers in Khatlon, urging Kabul’s authorities to curb cross-border militant activity and ensure stronger security along the two countries’ shared frontier.

Tajikistan condemns Afghanistan drone strike killing three Chinese workers

ANKARA: Pope Leo XIV arrived in Turkiye on Thursday for a four-day visit where he will hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and meet Christian leaders on the first overseas trip of his papacy.&nbsp;The trip, which includes a second leg to Lebanon, begins in the Turkish capital Ankara, where the first American pope landed shortly after midday.&nbsp;&quot;I have very much been looking forward to this trip because of what it means for Christians, but it is also a great message to the whole world,&quot; he told reporters travelling with him on his plane, describing it as a &quot;historic moment&quot;.&nbsp;After paying his respects at the mausoleum dedicated to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkiye, Leo will head into talks with Erdogan, who is seen as a key player for peace efforts in a region fraught with conflict.&nbsp;Then he will address authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps before heading to Istanbul in the early evening.&nbsp;Leo&#39;s first steps abroad will be scrutinised by the world&#39;s media, with more than 80 journalists accompanying him on his papal plane.&nbsp;Since his election in May as the leader of the world&#39;s 1.4 billion Catholics, the pope has shown himself to be adept at handling the media, talking to reporters weekly.&nbsp;In a sign of his desire to reach a wide audience, Leo will deliver all his speeches during the trip in English, his native language, rather than the Italian he usually uses.&nbsp;His first address in Turkiye is expected to focus on dialogue with Islam in a country where Christians account for only 0.1 percent of the 86 million inhabitants -- most of them Sunni Muslims.&nbsp;On the doorstep of a conflict-ridden Middle East, the pope who upon his election called for &quot;unarmed and disarming&quot; peace, is expected to address the crises troubling the region.&nbsp;But between the colonnades of Ankara&#39;s monumental presidential palace, Leo will have to tread delicately if he plans to address the sensitive issue of human rights, the arrest of Erdogan&#39;s opponents, or the status of Turkey&#39;s Christians, who are struggling against inequality and exclusion.&nbsp;Promoting unityThe Holy See also acknowledges Turkiye&#39;s efforts in taking in more than 2.5 million mostly Syrian refugees, according to authorities.&nbsp;On the subject of refugees and migrants, Leo has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor Francis, most recently criticising the &quot;extremely disrespectful&quot; treatment of migrants by the government of US President Donald Trump.&nbsp;Friday&#39;s calendar will take on a more religious aspect with the celebration in Iznik of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering of bishops in the year 325 that resulted in a creed, or statement of faith, still central to Christianity.&nbsp;Invited by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, leader of the world&#39;s Orthodox Christians, Leo will take part in a prayer on the shores of Lake Iznik that was initially to include former Pope Francis, who died in April.&nbsp;&quot;Bartholomew and I have already met several times, and I think this will be an exceptional opportunity to promote unity among all Christians,&quot; Leo told journalists late Tuesday.&nbsp;Catholics and Orthodox Christians have been divided since a schism in 1054.&nbsp;Catholics recognise the universal authority of the pope as the head of the Church, while Orthodox Christians are organised into local Churches with their own leaders.&nbsp;Leo&#39;s trip comes as the Orthodox world appears even more fragmented than ever, with the war in Ukraine accelerating the split between the Moscow and Constantinople patriarchates. The pope is the fifth pontiff to visit Turkiye, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.&nbsp;On Sunday, Leo will head to religiously diverse Lebanon, a nation that has been crushed by a devastating economic and political crisis since 2019 and which has been the target of repeated bombings by Israel in recent days, despite a ceasefire.&nbsp;

Pope Leo XIV begins his first papal trip in Turkiye, holding talks with President Erdogan and Christian leaders, addressing regional conflicts, interfaith dialogue, refugees, and church unity before continuing to Lebanon amid ongoing political and humanitarian crises.

Pope lands in Turkiye to meet Erdogan on first overseas trip

ISLAMABAD: Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the latest weapon in a years-long disinformation campaign targeting Muslims in India and Pakistan internationally, with AI-generated images now spreading hatred globally at unprecedented speed and scale across social media platforms. A September 2025 report by the Washington-based&nbsp;nonprofit Center for the Study of Organized Hate documented how 297 accounts created 1,326 AI-generated images and videos between May 2023 and May 2025 that dehumanized India&#39;s approximately 200 million Muslims. The posts accumulated 27.3 million total engagements across X, Facebook, and Instagram, with activity surging after January 2024 as AI tools became more accessible. The AI-generated content follows four patterns: sexualizing Muslim women, portraying Muslims as subhuman, promoting conspiracy theories, and glorifying violence. Images depict Muslims as snakes wearing skullcaps, show fabricated scenes of Muslims celebrating terror attacks, and create pornographic content featuring Muslim women without consent. &quot;This represents the acceleration of hate speech practices through content with greater credibility and precision at scale,&quot; the report said. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-6" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 802px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-6&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1928845624885076458&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F2451%2F&sessionId=b7f57312e8b4bb5dae91c4d445484d177aedce35&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div> The synthetic images reinforce long-standing conspiracy theories. &quot;Love Jihad&quot; falsely claims that Muslim men systematically seduce Hindu women for forced conversion. &quot;Rail Jihad&quot; baselessly attributes train accidents to Muslim sabotage. Following a January 2025 train accident in Jalgaon that killed 11 people, caused by passengers fleeing what they thought was a fire, Hindu nationalist outlet Sudarshan News circulated AI-generated images showing a Muslim man holding an axe near a train as supposed proof of a deliberate attack. The report stated how&nbsp;Hindu nationalist media outlets OpIndia, Sudarshan News, and Panchjanya have emerged as primary producers and amplifiers of AI-generated hate. OpIndia&#39;s network alone produced 262 posts generating 1.1 million engagements. When researchers reported 187 posts for violating platform guidelines, only one was removed. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-5" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 1042px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-5&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1916168793027444787&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F2451%2F&sessionId=b7f57312e8b4bb5dae91c4d445484d177aedce35&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div> The AI-driven hate campaign is built&nbsp;on infrastructure exposed years earlier. In December 2020, Brussels-based EU DisinfoLab revealed a network of over 750 fake local media outlets operating in 116 countries, as well as more than 10 sham NGOs accredited to the UN Human Rights Council. The operation, primarily targeting Pakistan, resurrected defunct NGOs, impersonated European Union institutions, and used a deceased international law professor&#39;s identity to manufacture credibility. Asian News International, an Indian news agency, amplified content from these fake outlets globally, according to the report. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-4" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 849px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-4&features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1992066818165617029&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F2451%2F&sessionId=b7f57312e8b4bb5dae91c4d445484d177aedce35&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div> More recently, a temporary location feature on X revealed several accounts claiming to be Israeli or Zionist were actually operating from India, showing a coordinated identity deception across the network. The tactics parallel those of Western far-right movements. After the 2024 Southport stabbings in Britain, AI-generated images spread Islamophobic claims about the attacker&#39;s identity.</div> In Italy, opposition parties filed complaints against Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini&#39;s League party for distributing AI-generated images depicting men of color assaulting women. The Center for the Study of Organized Hate describes this as &quot;slopaganda&quot;: deliberate use of cheap, abundant synthetic content to seed hate across digital spaces. In India, the consequences extend beyond digital harassment. Following the April 2025 Pahalgam attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir, civil rights groups documented 184 anti-Muslim and anti-Kashmiri hate crimes between April 22 and May 8. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-2" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 849px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1970417210247291132&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F2451%2F&sessionId=b7f57312e8b4bb5dae91c4d445484d177aedce35&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div> A February 2025 Center for the Study of Organized Hate report found that of 1,165 hate speech events recorded in 2024, 995 were first shared or livestreamed on social media platforms. The spike in AI-generated content coincides with rising religious tensions. A 2019 Indian Supreme Court verdict awarded the disputed Ayodhya site (formerly the 16th-century Babri Mosque, later demolished) to Hindus for temple construction. The 1992 Babri Mosque destruction sparked riots that killed thousands, mainly Muslims. AI-generated images now depict that demolition in romanticized animation styles. Hindu nationalist groups claim numerous historical mosques were originally Hindu temples, including promoting a debunked theory that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple named &quot;Tejo Mahalaya.&quot; In 2021, Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed that the company knew users in India were being flooded with hateful propaganda against Muslims, fueling violence. Platform failures to moderate AI-generated hate content persist as synthetic media proliferates faster than enforcement mechanisms adapt. With low-cost ChatGPT subscriptions now available in India for less than $5 a month, the report warns that conditions exist for exponential growth in AI-generated hateful material threatening religious minorities with psychological harm and physical violence.

India

The AI-generated content follows four patterns: sexualizing Muslim women, portraying Muslims as subhuman, promoting conspiracy theories, and glorifying violence. 

India's AI-driven anti-Muslim disinformation network spans the globe

ISLAMABAD:&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif reaffirmed Pakistan&rsquo;s commitment to advancing ties with Bahrain during meetings in Manama with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince and Prime Minister <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" id="isPasted">H.E. Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif&rsquo;s official visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At Al-Qudaibiya Palace, the prime minister invited Bahraini investors to explore opportunities in food security, information technology, construction, mines and minerals, healthcare, renewable energy, and tourism, Radio Pakistan reported.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He also proposed enhanced port-to-port connectivity between Karachi, Gwada,r and Khalifa Bin Salman Port, describing the expanded link as a key driver for trade and logistical cooperation.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a post on X, Sharif said the meeting with the crown prince was &ldquo;warm and most cordial&rdquo; and that both sides reviewed the full range of bilateral relations and agreed to deepen cooperation across political, economic, and defence areas.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prime Minister Sharif said both countries aim to translate &ldquo;excellent political goodwill into meaningful and tangible outcomes,&rdquo; with the discussions expected to elevate Pakistan&ndash;Bahrain cooperation further.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 2;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-1" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 726px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1993882486024061337&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Fdashboard&sessionId=07432a2de99e7fec841b199edda31e7e338b7b5d&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px"></iframe></div></div>Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar also met Bahrain&rsquo;s Minister of Finance and National Economy, H.E. Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, during this visit. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening Pakistan-Bahrain relations, with a particular focus on expanding economic cooperation.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 2;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1993938644466585884&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F2448%2F&sessionId=8741f748336569ac057f0bfb67f6fd1cc77dc1ce&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 750px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;">&nbsp;</iframe></div></div>Both ministers highlighted significant potential in fintech, banking, and financial services and agreed to intensify collaboration in these sectors. They also discussed possibilities for central bank-level cooperation, including the creation of joint working teams to develop a comprehensive roadmap for enhanced economic engagement. Pakistan and Bahrain underscored that deeper economic ties would help unlock new opportunities for investment, innovation, and sustainable growth, reinforcing the long-standing partnership between the two countries.

Foreign Affairs

The two sides reaffirm their commitment to further strengthening Pakistan-Bahrain relations, with a particular focus on expanding economic cooperation.

Pakistan, Bahrain reaffirm commitment to deepen economic partnership

ISLAMABAD: Apple has mounted a major legal pushback against India&rsquo;s updated competition penalty framework, filing a petition in the Delhi High Court to contest the 2024 amendment that lets regulators levy fines based on a company&rsquo;s global turnover, Indian media reported.&nbsp;According to Indian news outlets, including India Today, the case could set a benchmark for how India regulates multinational tech giants.&nbsp;Apple calls India&rsquo;s new penalty rule unconstitutionalIndian media reports say Apple&rsquo;s 545-page petition asks the Delhi High Court to declare the 2024 amendment &ldquo;illegal&rdquo; and &ldquo;unconstitutional.&rdquo; &nbsp;The rule empowers the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to calculate fines using a firm&rsquo;s worldwide turnover, not just its Indian revenue.&nbsp;Apple argues the method is &ldquo;manifestly arbitrary&rdquo;, &ldquo;grossly disproportionate&rdquo; and could result in fines of up to $38 billion.&nbsp;The challenge comes amid a CCI investigation triggered by complaints from Match Group and Indian startups, alleging Apple restricts third-party payments and charges up to 30% commission on in-app purchases. &nbsp;Apple denies the allegations, saying iOS is a secure platform and that Android dominates India&rsquo;s market.&nbsp;Apple fears the law may be applied retroactivelyAs per media reports, Apple cited a recent case where the CCI applied the global-turnover principle to conduct from almost a decade ago. &nbsp;Apple says this forced it to file the constitutional challenge to avoid similar treatment in its ongoing case.&nbsp;To illustrate, Apple compared it to penalizing the entire turnover of a stationery shop for a violation committed only by its toy business.&nbsp;Regulators and legal experts defend the amendmentAccording to experts quoted in Indian media, Apple faces a difficult legal fight. &nbsp;Competition lawyers say the amendment clearly authorizes the CCI to consider global turnover, aligning India with EU-style antitrust practices. &nbsp;Government officials argue the law is designed to prevent global corporations from escaping proportionate penalties.&nbsp;Apple&rsquo;s rising footprint in India increases scrutinyIndian media reports cite research showing Apple&rsquo;s smartphone base in India has quadrupled in five years, boosted by local manufacturing and premium demand. &nbsp;With Apple increasingly important in India&rsquo;s digital economy, regulators are watching it more closely.The Delhi High Court will hear Apple&rsquo;s plea on December 3. &nbsp;If the company loses, it could face one of India&rsquo;s largest-ever corporate fines and set a precedent allowing global turnover to become the new penalty benchmark for tech multinationals operating in India.

Gadgets

According to Indian news outlets, the case could set a benchmark for how India regulates multinational tech giants.

Apple challenges India’s antitrust law that could cost it $38B fine: reports

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron is to announce on Thursday that France is restoring military service on a voluntary basis in the face of the growing threat posed by Russia and the risk of a new conflict breaking out in Europe. Almost three decades after France scrapped conscription, the head of state is due to lay out the change in a speech from 1000 GMT on a visit to an infantry brigade stationed in the Alps in southeastern France, said a presidential official, asking not to be named. The announcement will come more than three and a half years into Russia&#39;s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Macron and other French officials warning that Moscow risks not stopping at Ukraine&#39;s borders. France&#39;s top general, armed forces chief of staff Fabien Mandon, sparked uproar at home last week by warning that France must be ready &quot;to lose its children,&quot; adding that Russia is &quot;preparing for a confrontation by 2030 with our countries.&quot; Macron told RTL broadcaster he would announce a &quot;transformation of national service into a new form&quot; on Thursday, but did not provide further details. A source with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the plan is to train 2,000 to 3,000 people in the first year, aiming to increase the number of sign-ups over time to 50,000 per year. &quot;It will start slowly,&quot; said the source. This &quot;new form of national service&quot; will be &quot;on a voluntary basis,&quot; said a presidential official. An adviser to Macron, also requesting anonymity, emphasized it would be launched at a time of tight budget constraints. Its implementation will therefore be &quot;phased in over time,&quot; said the adviser, promising a &quot;realistic&quot; project that &quot;takes into account our current resources.&quot; Not going to &#39;send our young&#39;&nbsp;While around a dozen states have some form of conscription, the use of military service is uneven across Europe. But France would join European countries like Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania, which have brought it back in recent years, while others, such as Denmark, have toughened its terms. So far, there is no suggestion that military service in France would be compulsory, as it was before then-president Jacques Chirac abolished conscription in 1997 as part of the army reform. Military service is seen as a way to bolster armies with recruits and to provide a large pool of potential reservists who could be called up in the event of a future war. The French armed forces have approximately 200,000 active military personnel and 47,000 reservists, numbers expected to increase to 210,000 and 80,000, respectively, by 2030. Accused of warmongering by the left, General Mandon has expressed no regret over his comments last week, saying the aim was to &quot;alert and prepare&quot; amid a &quot;rapidly deteriorating&quot; context. Mandon argued on Saturday that the reactions to his comments &quot;show that this is something that was perhaps not sufficiently perceived in our population.&quot; But ahead of Thursday&#39;s announcement, Macron and other officials have been at pains to douse the outcry caused by the general&#39;s forthright comments and fears that French youth were heading for the front lines. The president on Tuesday said he needed to dispel any notion &quot;we are going to send our young people to Ukraine.&quot;

Announcement will come more than three and a half years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Macron and other French officials warning that Moscow risks not stopping at Ukraine's borders.

Macron to announce France restoring voluntary military service

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday bade farewell to Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad Mirza at a ceremony held at Joint Staff Headquarters in Rawalpindi, marking the completion of his 40 years of service, the military&rsquo;s media wing said in a statement. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the event was attended by former CJCSCs and senior officers from all three services. A &ldquo;Guard of Honor&rdquo; was presented to the outgoing chairman by a smartly turned-out tri-services contingent, ISPR said. In his farewell remarks, General Mirza expressed gratitude to the Almighty God for granting him the &ldquo;strength to perform his duties with dedication, professionalism, and selfless devotion.&rdquo; He also paid tribute to Pakistan&rsquo;s security forces, honoring &ldquo;the martyrs and their families whose sacrifices safeguard our nation,&rdquo; the statement added. A day earlier, General Mirza paid a farewell call on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir at General Headquarters (GHQ). ISPR said the army chief commended the CJCSC for his &ldquo;exemplary leadership, strategic foresight, and dedicated service to the armed forces.&rdquo; The field marshal praised General Mirza&rsquo;s &ldquo;pivotal role in enhancing tri-services synergy, strengthening joint operational preparedness, and advancing Pakistan&rsquo;s national security objectives at the strategic level.&rdquo; He also highlighted the outgoing chairman&rsquo;s contributions to regional stability, military diplomacy, and Pakistan&rsquo;s defense partnerships with friendly states. ISPR said General Mirza expressed appreciation to the COAS and the armed forces for their &ldquo;unwavering support throughout his career.&rdquo; Upon his arrival at GHQ, the CJCSC laid a floral wreath at Yadgar-e-Shuhada and was presented another Guard of Honor by a Pakistan Army contingent, the statement added.

Security

General Mirza pays homage to the martyrs and their families; COAS Munir lauds CJCSC’s pivotal role in enhancing tri-services synergy, strengthening joint operational preparedness, and advancing country’s national security objectives at the strategic level


Pakistan honors outgoing top military official after four decades’ service

IRBIL: A drone strike on Wednesday targeted an Emirati-owned gas complex in Iraq&rsquo;s autonomous Kurdistan region, disrupting the gas supply to the region&rsquo;s power plants, local authorities said. &ldquo;At 11:30 p.m. (2030 GMT), a drone attacked the Khor Mor gas field facility, cutting off all gas supplies to power plants,&rdquo; the regional natural resources and electricity authorities said in a statement. AFP correspondents in Kurdistan reported power cuts across the region, including in the city of Sulaimaniyah. The Khor Mor gas field lies between the cities of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, and supplies most of the Kurdistan region&rsquo;s power. Omed Ahmed, the regional electricity authority spokesperson, said the attack resulted in the loss of 2,600 megawatts of electricity, disrupting 80% of the region&rsquo;s power grid. Authorities said they were coordinating with the United Arab Emirates company Dana Gas to investigate the attack and restore operations. A local security source told AFP that the attack &ldquo;targeted gas storage tanks, causing a major explosion and large fire.&rdquo; It was unclear whether the attack resulted in any casualties, he added. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Long plagued by conflict, Iraq frequently suffers such attacks. Unclaimed Katyusha rocket and drone attacks have targeted the Khor Mor complex several times in recent years. In April 2024, four Yemeni workers were killed in a drone attack on the facility. Earlier this year, the Kurdistan region saw a spate of unclaimed drone attacks, mostly against oilfields.

A drone strike hit the Emirati-owned Khor Mor gas field in Iraqi Kurdistan, cutting power to the region and disrupting 80% of its electricity supply.

Drone strike hits Iraq gas complex, cuts supply: official

Web Desk/AFP

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that an Afghan man who fled the Taliban was the suspect in the shooting of two National Guardsmen near the White House, calling it an &quot;act of terror.&quot; American media reported that the&nbsp;shooting suspect worked with the US military in Afghanistan.&nbsp; US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post on X that the processing of all immigration cases related to Afghan immigrants &ldquo;is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.&rdquo; &ldquo;The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,&rdquo; the agency said. &#39;Flown in on those infamous flights&#39;Briefing the media, Trump stated that the suspect in custody is a &quot;foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth. He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021, on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.&quot; The announcement in a brief video message signaled the intertwining of three politically explosive issues &mdash; Trump&#39;s controversial use of the military at home, immigration, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan. According to US media reports, Rahmanullah Lakanwal is an Afghan national who entered the United States under a Biden-era policy allowing Afghans to enter after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.&nbsp; Who is the suspect?Lakanwal was paroled into the United States through the Operation Allies Welcome program, which the Biden administration initiated to resettle afghan refugees.&nbsp; Lakanwal applied for immigration in 2024 and was granted asylum earlier this year, US media reported.&nbsp; The incident, which left two Guardsmen critically wounded, was &quot;an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror,&quot; Trump said. &quot;It was a crime against our entire nation.&quot; Before the press briefing, Trump posted an update on the injured officers on Truth Social, saying: &ldquo;The animal that shot the two National Guardsmen, with both being critically wounded, and now in two separate hospitals, is also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price.&quot; <div class="fr-embed" style="line-height: 2;"><iframe src="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115617866419112089/embed" class="truthsocial-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0;" width="600" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div> He confirmed that the man taken into custody after the daylight shooting two blocks from the White House was &quot;a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan.&quot; The suspect had arrived in the United States in 2021 &quot;on those infamous flights,&quot; Trump said, referring to the evacuations of Afghans fleeing as the Taliban took over the country in the wake of the US retreat after 20 years of war. The shocking attack, carried out next to a metro station at a time when the streets and offices of downtown Washington were bustling, also puts a new focus on Trump&#39;s controversial militarization of an anti-crime push around the country. Trump has deployed troops to several cities, all run by Democrats, including Washington, Los Angeles, and Memphis. The deployments have prompted multiple lawsuits and protests from local officials who accuse the Republicans of seeking authoritarian powers. Trump&#39;s statement also indicated that his equally controversial drive to root out migrants in the country illegally &mdash; the core of his domestic agenda &mdash; will get new impetus. &quot;We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan&quot; under former president Joe Biden, said Trump. &quot;We must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country if they can&#39;t love our country, we don&#39;t want them.&quot; &#39;Ambushed&#39;&nbsp;Jeffery Carroll, assistant chief of the Washington police, said the gunman &quot;ambushed&quot; his victims. He &quot;came around the corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged at the National Guard members.&quot; FBI Director Kash Patel said the two Guard members were in &quot;critical condition.&quot; Trump earlier said on social media that the suspect was &quot;also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price.&quot; An AFP reporter near the scene heard several loud pops and saw people running. Dozens of bystanders were caught up in the chaos. &quot;We heard gunshots. We were waiting at the traffic light, and there were several shots,&quot; said Angela Perry, 42, who was driving home with her two children. &quot;You could see National Guard running toward the metro with their weapons drawn.&quot; Soon after the shootings, security agents flooded the area. Officers carrying rifles stood guard behind yellow tape at the perimeter, and a helicopter circled overhead. An AFP reporter saw emergency crews running toward the metro with a wheeled stretcher and shortly after emerging with a casualty wearing camouflage, whom they loaded into an ambulance. Troops controversy&nbsp;Washington&#39;s government buildings are heavily guarded, but much of the city has suffered from years of sometimes serious street crime. Trump made Washington a showcase for his decision to order National Guard soldiers &mdash; in camouflage and occasionally carrying rifles &mdash;&nbsp;to do law enforcement in Democratic-run cities. In the wake of Wednesday&#39;s shooting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that 500 more troops would deploy to Washington, bringing the total to 2,500. Last Thursday, a federal judge ruled that Trump&#39;s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops in the US capital was unlawful.

US authorities suspend all immigration case processing for Afghan nationals after the arrest of an Afghan suspect in the Washington shooting. President Donald Trump calls for a nationwide re-screening of all undocumented immigrants from Afghanistan and other countries as part of a broader security review.

Trump calls Afghanistan ‘hell hole’ after Afghan man shoots two soldiers near White House

HONG KONG: The death toll from a huge blaze that ripped through a Hong Kong housing estate rose to 55, the city&#39;s fire department said on Thursday afternoon. Fire service officials told a news conference that 51 died at the scene, while four died in hospital. They added that blazes in four of the eight apartment blocks in the estate had been extinguished and that three fires were under control. One building was not affected. The inferno &mdash; the financial hub&#39;s worst in decades &mdash; took hold on Wednesday afternoon in an eight-building housing estate with 2,000 apartments, sending shockwaves through the city, which has some of the world&#39;s most densely populated and tallest residential blocks. Police said early on Thursday they arrested three men in connection with the fire, after flammable materials left during maintenance work caused the blaze &quot;to spread rapidly beyond control.&quot; Officers searched premises in a separate neighborhood on Thursday morning, taking away documents in binders in relation to the three people arrested, who police suspect &quot;acted with gross negligence&quot; by leaving foam packaging at the site of the fire. AFP journalists at the scene just after daybreak on Thursday saw some flats still burning, although the blaze had noticeably dimmed during the early hours of the morning. Intense flames first took hold on bamboo scaffolding on several 31-storey apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court on Wednesday in the northern district of Tai Po, which was undergoing estate-wide repairs. An AFP reporter heard loud cracking sounds, possibly from the burning bamboo, and saw thick plumes of smoke billowing from the buildings as flames and ash reached high into the sky. A 65-year-old resident surnamed Yuen said he had lived in the complex for more than four decades and that many of his neighbours were elderly and might not be mobile. &quot;The windows were closed because of the maintenance, (some people) didn&#39;t know there was a fire and had to be told to evacuate via phone calls by neighbours,&quot; Yuen told AFP. &quot;I&#39;m devastated.&quot; Hong Kong&#39;s fire department raised the death toll to 44 on Thursday morning. Among the dead was a 37-year-old firefighter, who was found with burns on his face half an hour after losing contact with colleagues, according to the fire service director Andy Yeung. A government spokesman told AFP that 56 people were being treated in hospital. Sixteen were in a critical condition, 24 were in a serious condition, and 16 were stable. City leader John Lee said in the early hours of Thursday that 279 were unaccounted for, though firefighters said later that they had established contact with some of those people. Lee said more than 900 people sought refuge at temporary shelters. &#39;Unable to reach people who requested help&#39;&nbsp;Authorities said they will launch a probe into the fire and into the materials on the buildings&#39; exteriors that may have caused the blaze to spread faster than usual. A police officer at a temporary shelter told AFP it was unclear how many people were unaccounted for because residents were still trickling in late into the night to report missing family members. Sections of charred scaffolding fell from the burning blocks, and flames could be seen inside apartments, sometimes belching out through windows into the night sky, casting an eerie orange glow on surrounding buildings. &quot;The temperature at the scene is very high, and there are some floors where we have been unable to reach people who requested help, but we will keep trying,&quot; said Derek Armstrong Chan, the deputy director of fire service operations. He said the fire likely spread from one building to another due to the wind and drifting debris, although he added that authorities are investigating the cause of the blaze. Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed condolences to the victims, including &quot;the firefighter who died in the line of duty,&quot; according to state media. &quot;He offered sympathies to the families of the victims and those affected by the disaster, and called for making every effort to extinguish the fire and minimise casualties and losses,&quot; state broadcaster CCTV said. Lee, the city leader, said he was &quot;deeply saddened&quot; and that all government departments were assisting residents affected by the fire. &#39;Dare not leave&#39;&nbsp;A Tai Po resident surnamed So, 57, said the fire was &quot;heartbreaking.&quot; &quot;There&#39;s nothing that can be done about the property. We can only hope that everyone, no matter old or young, can return safely,&quot; So told AFP. An apartment owner in his 40s who did not want to give his name told AFP that the government needed to help those made homeless by the blaze. &quot;The fire is not yet under control, and I dare not leave, and I don&#39;t know what I can do,&quot; he said. Residents were seen being evacuated via large coaches, with local media reporting that adjacent blocks were also being cleared. Sections of a nearby highway were also closed by the firefighting operation. Deadly fires were once a regular scourge in densely populated Hong Kong, especially in poorer neighborhoods. However, safety measures have been ramped up in recent decades, and such fires are now much less common.

Police say three men arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the fire; they give no details about what specifically they are accused of doing.



Articles by AP