News of the World
11-12-2025, 09:42 AM
USA
Quote:The House will vote on reopening the federal government Wednesday after lawmakers’ funding bill survived a key hurdle earlier in the morning.
The bipartisan deal to end the 42-day government shutdown advanced through the House Rules Committee overnight Wednesday, with all Republicans supporting the measure and all Democrats against.
It now moves to the full House for consideration, where multiple people familiar with GOP leaders’ conversations told Fox News Digital they believe it will pass with nearly all Republicans on board.
Passage through the House Rules Committee is a meaningful step toward ending the shutdown, now the longest in US history by roughly a week.
The panel’s hearing to advance the bill lasted more than six hours, kicking off Wednesday evening and ending shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday.
Democrats attempted to force votes on amendments dealing with COVID-19-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year and other issues opposed by the GOP, though all failed.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, made a notable surprise appearance at one point, testifying in favor of his own amendment to extend those subsidies for another three years.
The lengthy hearing saw members on opposite sides of the aisle clash several times as well, with Democrats repeatedly accusing Republicans of robbing Americans of their healthcare and taking a “vacation” for several weeks while remaining in their districts during the shutdown.
“I am sick and tired of hearing you all say we had an eight-week vacation,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-NC, said at one point. “I worked every day. I don’t know about you. I don’t want to hear another soul say that.”
Democrats and some Republicans also piled on a provision in the funding bill that would allow GOP senators to sue the federal government for $500,000 for secretly obtaining their phone records during ex-Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.
“I think there’s gonna be a lot of people, if they look and understand this, they’re going to see it as self-serving, self-dealing kind of stuff. And I don’t think that’s right,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said.
“I’m trying to figure out what we can do to force the Senate’s hand to say, ‘You’re going to repeal this provision and fix it,’ without amending it here.”
The bill will now get a House-wide “rule vote,” a procedural test that, if it passes, allows lawmakers to debate the legislation itself.
Lawmakers are expected to then hold a final vote sometime on Wednesday evening on sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.
Quote:The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended an order blocking full SNAP payments, amid signals that the government shutdown could soon end and food aid payments resume.
The order keeps in place at least for a few more days a chaotic situation. People who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to feed their families in some states have received their full monthly allocations, while others have received nothing.
The order will expire just before midnight Thursday.
The Senate has approved a bill to end the shutdown and the House of Representatives could vote on it as early as Wednesday. Reopening the government would restart the program that helps 42 million Americans buy groceries, but it’s not clear how quickly full payments would resume.
The justices chose what is effectively the path of least resistance, anticipating the federal government shutdown will end soon while avoiding any substantive legal ruling about whether lower court orders to keep full payments flowing during the shutdown are correct.
Beneficiaries in some states have received their full monthly allocations while in others they have received nothing. Some states have issued partial payments.
How quickly SNAP benefits could reach recipients if the government reopens would vary by state. But states and advocates say that it’s easier to make full payments quickly than partial ones.
Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst at the advocacy group Share Our Strength, also said there could be some technical challenges for states that have issued partial benefits to send out the remaining amount.
An urgent need for beneficiaries
In Pennsylvania, full November benefits went out to some people on Friday. But Jim Malliard, 41, of Franklin, said he had not received anything by Monday.
Malliard is a full-time caretaker for his wife, who is blind and has had several strokes this year, and his teenage daughter, who suffered severe medical complications from surgery last year.
That stress has only been compounded by the pause in the $350 monthly SNAP payment he previously received for himself, his wife and daughter. He said he is down to $10 in his account and is relying on what’s left in the pantry — mostly rice and ramen.
“It’s kind of been a lot of late nights, making sure I had everything down to the penny to make sure I was right,” Malliard said. “To say anxiety has been my issue for the past two weeks is putting it mildly.”
The political wrangling in Washington has shocked many Americans, and some have been moved to help.
“I figure that I’ve spent money on dumber stuff than trying to feed other people during a manufactured famine,” said Ashley Oxenford, a teacher who set out a “little food pantry” in her front yard this week for vulnerable neighbors in Carthage, New York.
SNAP has been the center of an intense fight in court
Quote:Violent “Antifa thugs” stormed a sold-out event for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA at the University of California, Berkeley, organizers said — with keffiyeh-clad protesters clashing with cops and attendees, leaving some covered in blood.
Turning Point USA leaders quickly blamed the bloody violence on anti-fascist agitators as footage showed demonstrators trying to break through police barricades after the campus event for the group was kicking off late Monday.
“Right now at our Turning Point USA campus tour stop at UC Berkeley… Antifa is breaking through police barricades and threatening our event attendees,” TPUSA chief of staff Mikey McCoy said on X.
As the violence erupted, one disturbing clip shot by Fox News showed a man in a red “Freedom” T-shirt with blood gushing from his face.
Police were spotted pulling him and another man apart as anti-Turning Point demonstrators — including some sporting keffiyehs — tried to intervene.
At least two people had already been arrested, including one for battery, before the event got underway, police said.
The event — which was held two months after Kirk, TPUSA’s co-founder, was assassinated at a campus event in Utah — drew hundreds of rowdy protesters.
Antifa expert Andy Ngo said the violence “was organized by the violent outsider Antifa group, By Any Means Necessary.”
“The group was involved in organizing prior Antifa attacks on the campus and in the city,” wrote Ngo, the author of “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.”
As night fell, footage captured demonstrators chanting loudly outside as cops clad in riot gear formed a barricade and blocked them from getting closer to the event.
At one point, a sign-carrying male protester could be seen being dragged away by officers after refusing to move back.
Despite the chaotic scenes outside, organizers said the hours-long event — hosted by actor and comedian Rob Schneider and Christian author Dr. Frank Turek — went off without a hitch inside.
“Despite Antifa thugs blocking our campus tour stop with tear gas, fireworks, and glass bottles, we had a PACKED HOUSE in the heart of deep blue UC Berkeley,” TPUSA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet said.
“God bless these brave students.”
Schneider sarcastically thanked the far-left agitators for coming to his event.
“Thank YOU, Antifa for welcoming us tonight at UC Berkeley,” he said. “We Look forward to our thoughtful, teargas free discussion and debate.”
Riot police were still in place as attendees were spotted filing out of the venue.
UC Berkeley assistant vice chancellor Dan Mogulof said the school had been bracing for the planned protest in the lead-up.
“The campus fully supports the rights and ability of every single student organization to invite whatever speakers they wish, regardless of their beliefs or perspectives,” Mogulof said.
The event marked the final stop of Turning Point’s “American Comeback Tour” — the nationwide event Kirk was scheduled to headline before he was assassinated.
Quote:A demonstrator named “Jihad” who was at Monday’s chaotic protest against Turning Point USA at the University of California-Berkeley was charged with assault and robbery for an incident at the scene, according to cops.
Jihad Dphrepaulezz, 25, allegedly snatched a chain necklace from an attendee, sparking a vicious fight that left him and the victim covered in blood — as “antifa thugs” clashed with Charlie Kirk supporters exactly two months after the TPUSA founder’s assassination.
The unidentified victim was initially arrested, too, but later released.
“Officers determined that one of the men—Jihad Dphrepaulezz … had stolen the other man’s chain from around his neck. The other man was attempting to get his chain back from Dphrepaulezz,” a rep with the Berkeley Police Department told The Post.
Aerial footage from FOX 2 appeared to show Dphrepaulezz snatching something from a TPUSA supporter’s neck as protesters clashed with Charlie Kirk supporters.
Dphrepaulezz seemed to dash away before the man — in a red shirt reading “freedom” — chased him down.
The brawl went down as protesters stormed the sold-out event, organizers said — with the keffiyeh-clad demonstrators clashing with cops and attendees.
Quote:A twisted man with a laundry list of prior convictions allegedly snuck into a sorority at the University of California, Berkeley, watched young women living in the house shower and even stole their underwear, according to cops.
Courtney Alford, 45, was arrested by officers with the Berkeley Police Department last Wednesday, four days after a gaggle of sorority sisters reported seeing a strange man snooping around UC Berkeley’s Alpha Chi Omega house.
The students told police that they caught the pervert picking through a coed’s room before fleeing the residence around 6 a.m., while others reported seeing a middle-aged man sneaking around as early as 3 a.m., the department wrote in a news release.
When officers parsed through the house’s security footage, they found multiple clips of a man believed to be Alford walking inside and outside of the building until around 6:35 a.m. At one point, he also appeared to leave and return in an entirely new ensemble with a ski mask covering his face.
The disturbing ordeal took place during the wee hours of the morning when many students were returning from a night out celebrating Halloween on the university’s Greek Row, which is lined with fraternity and sorority houses.
During the investigation, police discovered that the creep had made off with pairs of the students’ underwear and a few slices of pizza.
Officer Byron White, with the Berkeley Police Department, told the Los Angeles Times that one student woke up while Alford was prowling near her bed and another alleged seeing him spying on her while she was showering.
“He is someone that is known to the Berkeley Police Department well enough that an officer recognized him from one of the [surveillance photos],” White told the outlet.
Investigators cuffed Alford at his home in Castro Valley, Calif., without incident on Nov. 5. Cops recovered a cache of weapons inside the home, including parts of an assault rifle, high-capacity ammunition magazines and more than 900 rounds of ammunition.
Quote:NORFOLK, Virginia — The two houses at the center of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ legal trouble have been magnets for police activity since she bought them — with cops dispatched two dozen times since her ne’er-do-well kin moved in, The Post has learned.
James’ serial crook grandniece, Nakia Thompson, 36, moved into one home with her three children soon after James closed on the house in August 2020, for which she paid $137,000.
Since then, cops have been summoned to the residence on 12 occasions, according to police records — including several instances in which they were called multiple times in a day.
Cops went out to the house for issuing warrants and subpoenas — as well as for incidents labeled vandalism, domestic issues and for suspicious persons.
Additional details about the nature of the calls were not immediately available.
James’ purchase of two small houses in Norfolk — which she says were both for her family members — landed her in legal hot water.
In October, she was indicted on federal bank fraud charges, which allege she misrepresented how she would use the property she bought in 2020 in order to obtain a more favorable loan interest rate.
The other house, which she bought in 2023, was the subject of a criminal referral on similar allegations.
Rather than occupying the residence herself — as loan paperwork bearing James’ signature indicated she would be doing despite working over 300 miles away — the homes have been occupied by troubled relatives of the AG with extensive criminal histories.
James, who denies any wrongdoing in the bank fraud charges, faces up to 60 years in federal prison if convicted.
At the home James bought in 2020, three of the calls were placed the year she bought it, one each in 2021, 2022 and 2023 — and six in the first two weeks of October this year.
The latter calls were made after the property came under national scrutiny when James was charged with bank fraud.
Thompson, who told a grand jury in June she was living rent-free in the three-bedroom, one-bath house, is currently wanted by authorities in Forsythe County, North Carolina, for failing to finish her probation, court documents reveal.
In that case, she was charged with malicious conduct by a prisoner, a felony, along with assault of a government official and resisting a public officer, court records show.
Quote:President Donald Trump said Tuesday that violent crime in Chicago has fallen sharply since the start of a federal crackdown known as “Operation Midway Blitz,” crediting the Department of Homeland Security-led effort with driving shootings and robberies down across the Windy City.
The president’s Truth Social post claimed that shootings are down 35%, robberies down 41% and carjackings nearly 50% since the operation began several weeks ago.
“This has been achieved despite the extraordinary resistance from Chicago and Illinois Radical Democrat leadership,” Trump wrote.
The post marks the president’s first public update on the initiative since late October, when DHS confirmed nine arrests, including three illegal immigrants, following what officials described as “one of the most violent days” of the operation.
According to DHS statements obtained by Fox News Digital, agents faced multiple assaults and vehicle rammings during coordinated Oct. 22 raids in the Chicago suburbs of Cicero and Glendale Heights.
DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin called it “one of the most violent days we’ve had,” confirming that one agent was injured and several patrol units were damaged.
The raids targeted violent offenders and previously deported foreign nationals with criminal records.
The operation’s namesake honors Katie Abraham, a Chicago-area resident killed in September in a hit-and-run involving a suspected illegal immigrant.
“Midway Blitz,” launched in September, is part of a broader DHS initiative aimed at “criminal illegal aliens terrorizing Americans in sanctuary Illinois,” according to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who said suspects who attacked agents “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Trump’s post also reignited tensions with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both of whom have previously opposed large-scale immigration raids.
The president accused them of obstructing enforcement and “encouraging violent resistance against ICE officers.”
Trump said the next phase of “Midway Blitz” will include a “full surge” of federal agents in Chicago and Memphis, claiming the first wave has already delivered measurable results.
“As we ramp up more assets, these numbers will continue to drop,” he wrote Tuesday.
We all know that
cockroaches are evil but this is just ridiculous. 
Quote:A man allegedly shot two people dead inside a New Mexico home after receiving an “encrypted message” telling him he “needed to kill” inside a cockroach, according to authorities and reports.
Police responded to a home in southwest Albuquerque just before 10:30 p.m. Friday and discovered two unidentified men dead with gunshot wounds inside the house, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Alexis Hernandez, 25, was arrested at the home and booked Saturday morning on two open counts of murder in connection to the double homicide, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Three additional adults and two young children were also inside the home, but were unharmed, police said.
When deputies arrived at the house, Hernandez answered the door armed with a gun and had a “Marine Corps saber” affixed to his hip, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the outlet.
The unhinged man allegedly confessed to deputies that there were two men dead inside the home and described himself as a member of the Marines, the filing said.
After he was detained, Hernandez blurted to police that one of the dead men, whom he believed was a friend, had been stalking him and placing cameras in light fixtures, the warrant claimed.
He then bizarrely claimed that he had received an “encrypted message in a cockroach” that told him he “needed to kill” one of the men, the document stated.
He was also “hearing creepy voices coming from the vents” and “had been getting signs that he had to end [one of the victims] before he ended him,” the document said, according to the outlet.
Hernandez had purchased a Glock handgun for “protection,” and allegedly unleashed the assault on Friday after the two men allegedly took him to the back room of the home, NBC News reported.
He told cops he was “afraid for his life at this point,” and shot one of the men, who was the property owner, in the head before shooting the other man in the kitchen, the warrant said, according to the outlet.
He allegedly shot both men before getting more ammunition from his vehicle, then returned to shoot them again, the publication reported.
Hernandez also told police that the two young children saw him shoot the men but maintained he was not going to “take the kids,” or do anything to them, the outlet reported.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for further comment.
Quote:The two people killed when a small plane crashed while taking supplies to hurricane-ravaged Jamaica have been identified as a Christian ministry CEO and his daughter.
Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena, 22, were killed when the turboprop plane slammed into a residential neighborhood pond near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, soon after takeoff Monday morning.
The father-daughter duo were en route to Jamaica to help with the hurricane relief efforts, authorities said.
In a heartfelt tribute, the evangelical Christian ministry that Wurm founded described him as a selfless devotee who had worked tirelessly to help others.
“Alexander, known for his warmth and unwavering kindness, devoted his life to serving others — both through his actions and by sharing the gospel of Jesus across the globe,” Ignite the Fire said in a social media statement.
“Throughout his life, Alex travelled extensively, reaching various countries and continents, where he tirelessly worked to bring faith, compassion, and support to those in need.”
“Serena, following in her father’s footsteps, was a beacon of empathy and hope, inspiring all with her commitment to humanitarian work. Together, their final journey embodied selflessness and courage, reminding us of the power of service and love,” the church added.
The small Beechcraft King Air plane the pair were on had taken off from the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport just after 10 a.m., officials said.
Harrowing surveillance video captured the plane crashing just moments later.
Quote:A dozen Dutch F-35 fighter jets are in the U.S. for annual training exercises to help prepare for defending NATO territory.
The 12 fighter jets arrived at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho on October 29 for the three week-long exercises, along with four A330 tankers for in-air refueling.
The aircraft are expected to return to the Netherlands around November 21.
The Context
The Dutch military says it holds regular training exercises in the U.S. because it is hard to find enough space in the Netherlands to test-fire the weapons carried by the stealth fighter jets.
The Netherlands has 40 F-35As capable of carrying American tactical nuclear weapons deployed in multiple bases across Europe. The F-35 can launch different air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons, like Sidewinder missiles and small diameter bombs. A Dutch military spokesperson said GPS- and laser-guided bombs would be test-fired but declined to specify individual weapons.
What To Know
The Dutch defense ministry said that its military personnel will practice dealing with simulated attacks, malfunctioning equipment, and rehearse flying low to take cover. "The pilots must be able to perform precision attacks," it said.
Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Dutch TNO think tank, said that each year Dutch personnel can train at squadron level with the U.S. Air Force in these exercises.
This means that all the personnel involved in operating the high-tech aircraft are skilled, and that many aircraft can work together when needed, Mertens told Newsweek.
NATO aircraft work together all the time, including for air policing operations along the alliance's eastern flank.
Several NATO countries sent additional fighter aircraft to Poland after Russian drones crossed into the country in mid-September. Russia denied deliberately targeting the country, but the incident was characterized by some current and former NATO officials as a probing of NATO defenses.
"For the Dutch, being able to train in the USA is particularly important, because we are a small, densely populated country," Mertens said. The Netherlands is roughly five times smaller than Idaho, but has about nine times the state's population, he said.
The F-35 is the most advanced Western fighter jet available to Western militaries outside the U.S. It is a fifth-generation stealth fighter, meaning it has better avionics and sensors while being harder to detect than fourth-generation aircraft.
It is billed by U.S. defense firm Lockheed Martin as the "most lethal, survivable and connected fighter jet in the world."
Last month, British and Australian F-35s completed joint training exercises in the Indo-Pacific.
LATIN AMERICA
Quote:The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier moved into Latin American waters Tuesday as the US ramped up its military presence in the region while targeting drug traffickers operating out of Venezuela.
The Navy’s 4th Fleet did not specify the Ford’s location Tuesday, but did confirm the vessel was inside the US Southern Command’s (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility — which includes the waters off Central and South America and the Caribbean Sea.
The Ford and its escort of three guided-missile destroyers join eight warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 aircraft already in the SOUTHCOM region.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the vessels’ presence would “bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere.”
“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations,” he added.
The aircraft carrier, which was commissioned in 2017, is the Navy’s newest and the world’s largest, with more than 5,000 sailors aboard.
President Trump ordered the Ford deployed to the SOUTHCOM region last month from the Middle East.
The move comes as the United Kingdom opted to no longer share intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in the strikes, CNN reported.
It marks a clear schism between the UK and US as skepticism continues to grow over the Trump administration’s military campaign around Latin America.
Prior to November, the UK had for years shared intelligence with the US to locate suspected smuggling boats in the region.
That partnership turned south following America’s deadly strikes in the Caribbean, which UK officials fear is a violation of international law, sources with knowledge of the decision told CNN.
Since Sept. 2, the US military has conducted 19 strikes against suspected drug transport vessels in both the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 76 people the Pentagon claims are part of global trafficking gangs.
Venezuela’s left-wing authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, has alleged the US is undertaking a campaign to drive him from power.
Quote:Venezuela is preparing for a potential U.S. attack by deploying decades-old Russian-made weapons and planning a guerrilla-style defense aimed at creating chaos, according to sources and documents obtained by Reuters.
Whether Venezuela's response is successful depends on the definition of success, Fulton Armstrong, who spent nearly 30 years in various U.S. government positions, many of which focused on Latin America, told Newsweek.
Why It Matters
Tensions between Venezuela and the United States remain high following recent U.S. airstrikes on cartel-operated vessels allegedly linked to Caracas, and, as satellite photos have shown, U.S. warships have been positioned for a potential strike against Venezuela—though President Donald Trump indicated earlier in November that he does not plan to launch a strike inside the nation.
The two countries are longtime adversaries. The new report from Reuters provides more details about how Venezuela could try to resist an attack from the U.S., though the strategy does reflect what insiders describe as a tacit acknowledgment of the country’s weakened military, which suffers from shortages of personnel, training and equipment.
What to Know
President Nicolás Maduro has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of seeking to overthrow him after Trump suggested possible ground operations following a military buildup in the Caribbean.
According to Reuters, Maduro’s government is betting on a so-called “prolonged resistance” campaign and an “anarchization” plan that would rely on small military units, militias and intelligence forces to wage sabotage and street unrest if the United States were to invade.
The strategy of "anarchization" would use intelligence services and armed supporters to create disorder in Caracas and make the nation ungovernable, Reuters reported. The two strategies are "complementary," and it's unclear when they would be deployed. Reuters reported that its sources said the strategies did face "long odds of success," as the nation is not prepared for a conflict against the U.S.
The military in Venezuela has faced challenges, including low pay for soldiers and old equipment that would make it difficult for the country to respond, Reuters reported. Soldiers are only paid $100 per month, and much of their equipment was made by Russia and has been around for decades, according to the report.
Trump's actions in the Caribbean have centered around his concerns about the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. Strikes carried out in the region have been focused on targeting individuals accused of drug trafficking. U.S. officials have referred to those individuals as "narco-terrorists," though some critics have questioned whether the strikes are legal.
Whether the response is successful depends on the definition of success, Fulton Armstrong, who now works as a professor of American University’s School of International Service after serving in various government roles across 30 years, including National Intelligence Officer for Latin America, told Newsweek.
“The U.S. has shown repeatedly that it can overthrow governments, blow up government buildings, and install a president to our liking. As Reuters says, the Venezuelan military isn’t going to fight on our terms; it’ll be destroyed,” he said.
Venezuelans will “indeed mount a clever campaign of sabotage, sniper attacks, and political operations to undermine the U.S. military and what they consider the ‘puppets’ we will install,” he said.
An attack by the U.S. would likely “fuel enough pockets of nationalistic fervor that either U.S. forces or pro-U.S. forces are going to feel a swarm of bees when they leave their little safe zones,” he said.
The administration does not appear to prefer a “boots on the ground” approach, he added.
“They’re hoping that huffing and puffing off the coast will signal to unhappy military officers to rise up, and for individuals that the Admin seems to think have been recruited by U.S. intel to lead the uprising, to remove Maduro from power,” he said, noting that “hasn’t worked so far.”
Quote:Colombian President Gustavo Petro has floated the idea of recreating Gran Colombia, the 19th-century republic that once spanned a swath of South America.
Petro made the comments last weekend in response to the United States' strike campaign in the Caribbean, which President Donald Trump's administration has said is targeting drug traffickers.
Petro said that a union could counter U.S. aggression in the region, although his interior minister later played down the remarks as “symbolic.”
Newsweek reached out to the Colombian president’s office for comment.
Why It Matters
Petro’s comments signal his growing anger about the Trump administration’s drug policy in the Caribbean and follow a deepening spat between Washington and Bogota, a U.S. ally in the region.
What To Know
Gran Colombia was founded by Simón Bolívar, who led the region to independence from Spain. It existed from 1821 to 1831 and included modern-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama.
Petro referred to the 19th-century republic as he took aim at the U.S. campaign in the Caribbean. Speaking on Saturday in Santa Marta, where Bolívar died, Petro compared the revolutionary struggle of the early 1800s with the present day.
He said on Saturday that every dictator who has appeared in the country has faced rebellion and asked if it was time “to talk about Gran Colombia again?”
In a post on X on Sunday, he proposed rebuilding the idea of a Gran Colombia along the lines of the European Union, with a common parliament and presidency. Petro repeated the idea when he hosted delegates at a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, where he said that Latin America has an older, but less successful, history of integration than the EU.
However, Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti told the Miami Herald that Petro’s comments were “symbolic” and referred to how Colombia and its neighbors will return “to brotherhood” rather than a merging of several nations.
Last month, the United States Treasury imposed sanctions on Petro, his family, and Benedetti over accusations that the government had not reined in the cocaine trade.
This puts the left-wing Petro in a club alongside Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a U.S. adversary who is also a focus of Trump’s narcotics crackdown, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last week, Petro said at the COP30 climate summit that Trump was “against mankind” and likened his immigration policy to that of the Nazis.
UKRAINE WAR
Quote:Romania has found suspected drone fragments on its soil, the country's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, after Russia attacked Ukrainian port facilities close to the NATO country overnight.
Authorities were told a drone had hit the ground about 5 kilometers, or just over 3 miles, from the Romanian border with Ukraine at 1:09 a.m. local time, the government said. Residents close to the border in Romania's Tulcea region were alerted shortly after midnight.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
The Context
The town and broader region of Tulcea sit directly across the border from the Ukrainian port of Izmail, which Russia has repeatedly targeted. The Danube River marks the border between the two countries, just north of Tulcea.
Russian drones have crossed into NATO territory a number of times since the Kremlin began its full-scale war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with fragments found in Romania on several occasions. Drones straying across the Danube have not so far been deemed intentional attacks. Romania is a member of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.
What To Know
"Teams of soldiers went to the scene and reported the presence of possible drone fragments," the Defense Ministry added in a statement.
Fighter jets are typically scrambled in NATO countries when they detect possible airspace violations. Poor weather conditions in southeastern Romania overnight stopped fighter jets from taking off, Bucharest said.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched almost 120 drones at the country overnight, targeting eastern Ukraine and the country's Odesa region, where Izmail is located. Close to half the drones struck the country across 18 different locations, and debris from an intercepted drone fell at one unspecified site, the military said.
One person was injured by shrapnel in Odesa, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said early on Tuesday. Russian strikes triggered fires at "several energy facilities," Kiper said.
A depot operated by Kyiv's state-owned Ukrainian Railways, as well as administrative buildings, were damaged, the governor added.
"A large number of explosions were recorded on the Ukrainian side of the Danube, in the area of the port of Izmail," Romania said.
What People Are Saying
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said early on Tuesday that Russia "massively attacked" Odesa with strike drones.
Quote:Chinese refiner Yanchang Petroleum, backed by a provincial government, has stopped purchasing Russian oil, according to Reuters news agency, citing two anonymous traders familiar with the matter.
Newsweek contacted Yanchang Petroleum seeking comment.
Why It Matters
China is Russia's leading strategic partner and its large-scale oil purchases have until now helped Moscow's war economy through Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.
The suspension of purchases by Yanchang would put Russia under major economic pressure to end its war on Ukraine.
What To Know
Yanchang has been a regular buyer of Russian oil, typically taking in one shipment per month, an oil trader told Reuters, but it has now shunned Russian oil in its tender for deliveries between December and mid-February.
China and India are Russia's top oil export markets.
The administration of President Donald Trump on October 22 announced sweeping new sanctions targeting Russia’s oil industry, in particular Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia's two top state-owned oil producers, in an effort to push President Vladimir Putin toward negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
Reuters reported last month that four major state-owned Chinese oil companies had suspended their purchases of seaborne Russian oil in response to the sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil.
Trump has for months sought to bring Russia's war to an end, mostly through diplomacy. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has dug in on his war goals and even intensified his attacks on Ukraine, defying Trump's pleas for peace. Ukraine and its European allies have urged Trump to take tougher action in response to Russia's recalcitrance.
China, responding to the U.S. sanctions on Russia's oil industry last month, said it opposes unilateral sanctions without a basis in international law or United Nations Security Council authorization.
Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping for talks on October 30 on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in South Korea. Trump said after the talks that they had discussed the war in Ukraine.
What People Are Saying
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakin told reporters on October 23, the day after the U.S. sanctioned Russia's oil companies: "Dialogue and negotiation is the only viable way out of Ukraine crisis. Coercion and pressuring provide no solution."
Quote:A Russian lawmaker has issued a threat about a nuclear–capable missile recently tested by Moscow, boasting in a broadcast that it could wipe out a whole U.S. state.
State Duma deputy Andrey Gurulyov touted the capabilities of the Burevestnik missile during a segment on the Solovyov Live talk and video channel in which he also claimed that Russia could defeat Ukraine in 30 minutes.
Why It Matters
Gurulyov is a former deputy Commander of Russia's Southern Military District and is currently a deputy in Russia’s parliament, the Duma.
He often makes threats against the West on state television. While these do not necessarily reflect Kremlin thinking, his latest pronouncements about the Burevestnik are likely to be part of a government-approved narrative to promote the weapon's capabilities.
This comes amid renewed tensions between Russia and the U.S. over the prospect of resumed nuclear testing mooted this month by President Donald Trump.
What To Know
In a clip shared by Russia watcher and journalist Julia Davis, Solovyov Live anchor Vladislav Shurygin asked Gurulyov about the significance of last month’s test-launch of the Burevestnik, which Moscow claims can penetrate any missile defense system, .
Gurulyov said that each missile had enough firepower to wipe out an entire American state, “if not more.” He said the weapon can remain in the air for as long as necessary and can even to fly to the Antarctic and circle “then quietly approach from the south” before striking any target.
Codenamed by NATO SSC-X-9 Skyfall, the ground-launched cruise missile was revealed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2018 as among six strategic weapons he boasted would be game changers.
Moscow touts its range as effectively unlimited, thanks to its onboard nuclear propulsion
In October 2023, Putin said the missile had been successfully flight-tested although there is no independent confirmation of this. The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) said in 2024 the weapon had a poor test record of only two partial successes out of least 13 known tests.
However, on October 21, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said a 9M730 Burevestnik flew 8,700 miles during a 15-hour flight and Putin hailed it as “unique.”
Gurulyov said the weapon’s key asset is that it is guaranteed to strike any target. Given the threat that this posed and the fear its capabilities could provoke, the war in Ukraine could be ended “within 30 minutes” he added.
He rejected that Russia would become a pariah for breaking the nuclear taboo, saying that countries would line up to be allies with Moscow given such a demonstration of strength.
Gurulyov said he was not calling for nuclear weapons to be used immediately but that adversaries should not think that they would never be used.
Quote:Russian troops riding on rusty motorbikes and on the roofs of battered cars stormed the fog-covered Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk on Tuesday — in a scene straight out of the post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” movie franchise, shocking video shows.
Footage from Russian war bloggers shows the reinforcements being sent to Pokrovsk, a logistical hub in eastern Ukraine that has been a target for 21 months, with the troops looking less like soldiers and more like marauders from George Miller’s 1979 dystopian flick.
The soldiers could be seen riding toward Pokrovsk in bands of motorcycles and in cars and vans with open roofs and missing doors and windows — all while covered in a heavy fog.
Some could be seen awkwardly carrying large rifles and rocket launchers as they dodged the debris littered across the road, with others casually sitting on the roofs of the battered vehicles.
Reuters confirmed the authenticity of the video, with the location matching the layout of the roads leading to Pokrovsk.
There are about 300 Russian soldiers currently inside Pokrovsk, with Kyiv’s soldiers currently battling the invaders under a dense fog and drones hovering overhead, Ukraine’s military said Tuesday.
After failing to conquer the city for nearly two years, Moscow is aiming to use sheer numbers to finally take the town, with 150,000 soldiers deployed for the final push.
The force represents more than a fifth of Russia’s roughly 700,000 soldiers in Ukraine, with Moscow aiming to fully surround Pokrovsk in a gambit to capture one of the last remaining cities standing in the Donetsk region, armed forces of Ukraine commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi told The Post Sunday.
As the urban battle intensifies, Russia claims it has already taken 256 buildings in the city, adding that its forces are advancing further in and around the railway station.
Open-source battlefield maps show that Russia is attempting a pincer maneuver around Pokrovsk, with its forces closing in on the city center.
Ukraine maintains that it can keep the Russian invaders at bay, as it has done so for nearly two years in the face of Moscow’s meat grinder that has dispensed thousands of soldiers a week for only small gains.
While experts and analysts have contended that Pokrovsk has outlived its usefulness and will eventually fall, Ukraine is still committed to holding onto the city.
In a sign of the importance of the battle to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the front lines near Pokrovsk last week, telling reporters that Russian attempts to break through had “no success” but acknowledging that “things are not easy” for his own forces.
EUROPE
Quote:Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be released from prison and placed under judicial supervision, a Paris appeals court ruled Monday, less than three weeks after he began serving a five-year sentence over a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.
Sarkozy, 70, was expected to leave Paris’ La Santé prison in the afternoon.
He will be banned from leaving the French territory and from being in touch with key people including co-defendants and witnesses in the case, the court said. An appeals trial is expected to take place later, possibly in the spring.
Sarkozy became the first former French head of state in modern times to be sent behind bars after his conviction on Sept. 25. He denies wrongdoing. He was jailed on Oct. 21 pending appeal but immediately filed for early release.
During Monday’s hearing, Sarkozy, speaking from prison via video conference, argued he has always met all justice requirements.
“I had never imagined I would experience prison at 70. This ordeal was imposed on me, and I lived through it. It’s hard, very hard,” he said.
Sarkozy also paid tribute to prison staff who he said helped him through “this nightmare.” Sarkozy’s wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of his sons, attended the hearing at the Paris courthouse.
Monday’s proceedings didn’t involve the motives for the sentencing.
Still, Sarkozy told the court he never asked Libya’s longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi for any financing. “I will never admit something I didn’t do,” he said.
Under French law, release is the general rule pending appeal, while detention remains the exception.
The former president, who governed from 2007 to 2012, faces separate proceedings, including a Nov. 26 ruling by France’s highest court over illegal financing of his failed 2012 reelection bid, and an ongoing investigation into alleged witness tampering in the Libya case.
In 2023, he was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling for trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated. France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, later upheld the verdict.
Quote:A German man allegedly used his own blood to paint swastikas on buildings and nearly four dozen cars in a sleepy central town outside of Frankfurt, according to police.
Authorities received an alert last Wednesday after a man said a car parked in Hanau was branded with a swastika in a reddish liquid. When authorities arrived on the scene, they found nearly 50 cars were similarly defaced, police spokesman Thomas Leipold said.
Investigators tested the substance, which revealed it was human blood.
The next day, police used a witness tip to trace the blood back to a 31-year-old Romanian citizen, who they arrested at his home.
“He was still under the strong influence of alcohol and his motive appears to be highly personal and job-related — he just snapped,” Leipold said.
The assilant was injured when he was apprehended and his wounds appeared to be self-inflicted, the police official added.
The suspect was booked in a “psychiatric hospital” and his identity was withheld per Germany’s privacy rules, Leipold said.
Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky was appalled by the attack and noted that the community is still working to put the pieces back together after a domestic terrorist attack in February 2020, in which a gunman specifically killed nine people with immigrant backgrounds at a hookah bar.
“Especially in our city, which was deeply affected by the racist attack on Feb. 19, 2020, such an act causes deep consternation,” he said, adding that the city had filed a criminal complaint, German news agency dpa reported.
“What happened here crosses every boundary of decency and humanity. Swastikas have no place in Hanau. We will not allow such symbols to sow fear or division.”
The display of Nazi emblems, including the swastika, is banned in Germany.
The banned symbol, which was depicted on Nazi flags and soldiers’ uniforms, has since been reused by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups who hold similar hate towards marginalized groups, including Jewish people.
Quote:A Saudi doctor went on trial on murder charges Monday over the car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg last year that left six people dead.
The 51-year-old suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, was brought by helicopter to a temporary courtroom in the eastern city specially set up for the trial, and sat behind a bulletproof glass screen.
Five women and a boy died, and many more people were wounded, in the Dec. 20 attack that lasted just over a minute. The defendant is charged with six counts of murder and 338 of attempted murder in the trial at the Magdeburg state court, for which sessions have been scheduled until March. He could face a life prison sentence if convicted.
Prosecutor Matthias Böttcher told the court that al-Abdulmohsen had acted out of “supposed personal frustration” and aimed to hit as many people as possible in order to gain “the attention he wanted,” German news agency dpa reported.
There are no formal pleas in the German legal system. But the defendant told the court: “I am the one who drove the car.”
He didn’t immediately give further details or offer any apology, dpa reported. Instead, he talked about alleged police cover-ups and criticized the media, and the presiding judge admonished him to address the matter at hand.
Investigators have said that the attack was carried out with a rented BMW X3, which reached speeds of up to 48 kph (30 mph) during the rampage. They said when they filed the indictment that he wasn’t under the influence of alcohol and apparently acted out of dissatisfaction with the outcome of a legal dispute and the failure of various criminal complaints. They also have said that he planned the attack without accomplices.
Officials have said the suspect doesn’t fit the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks. The man described himself as an ex-Muslim who was highly critical of Islam and on social media expressed support for the far-right. He had previously come to authorities’ attention for threatening behavior but wasn’t known to have committed any violence.
The Magdeburg car-ramming was one of a series of attacks involving immigrants that pushed migration to the forefront of the campaign for Germany’s national election in February. The defendant arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.
Quote:The outgoing boss of the BBC said he was “very proud” of the broadcaster’s journalism, two days after he quit following accusations of bias and the threat of legal action from US President Trump.
“I’m very, very proud of our journalists in this building. They’re doing work I think is incredibly important,” Tim Davie said on Tuesday, the first time he has spoken publicly since announcing his resignation on Sunday.
“They’re doing a wonderful job,” he added.
The publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation’s head of news also quit on Sunday, plunging it into its biggest crisis in decades and dominating the front pages of Britain’s newspapers on Tuesday.
Davie, who has been director general since 2020, also tried to calm worries over the future of the broadcaster.
“The BBC is going to be thriving, and I support everyone on the team,” he said.
Trump threatened legal action against the BBC on Monday for its editing of a speech he made in 2021 on the day his supporters overran the Capitol, which the British broadcaster admitted on Monday was an “error of judgment.”
Quote:Rattled UK residents living on streets named after disgraced ex-Duke of York Prince Andrew want his name scrubbed from their addresses in the wake of his sordid ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Residents of Prince Andrew Road and Prince Andrew Close in Maidenhead are urging local officials to rename their streets after Queen Elizabeth II’s third child, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was stripped of his royal titles and honors earlier this month, according to local reports.
Tom Kirk, who lives on Prince Andrew Road, said the street is “an embarrassing association.”
“Whenever you speak with someone, if you’re ordering something or tell someone where you live, there’s always raised eyebrows,” the mortified local told the Maidenhead Advertiser.
“This road name is now linked to controversy, given the severity of the allegations that continue to come through. In terms of where you live from a community side, it should reflect strong values like integrity, equality, respect. This road name doesn’t really represent that.”
Kirk, who moved to the area earlier this year with his partner and young son, said he reached out to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to kick-start the process of renaming the street, which was named after the tarnished former royal when he was born in 1960.
The 65-year-old shed his titles and ranks of “Prince” and “His Royal Highness” on Nov. 3 after allegations surfaced that he was one of Epstein’s notorious clients.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims who died by suicide in April, claimed in her posthumous memoir “Nobody’s Girl” that the infamous pedophile financier forced her to have sex with Andrew on three separate occasions, including when she was just 17.
“Some people might say that there are loads of bad men and women in the world who have buildings named after them,” another resident, who did not want to be named, told the BBC.
“They haven’t been changed or destroyed or so forth. But, I feel, if we can, why not explore it?”
ASIA
Quote:ISLAMABAD — A suicide bomber struck outside the gates of a district court in Islamabad on Tuesday, detonating his explosives next to a police car and killing 12 people, Pakistan’s interior minister said, the latest in an uptick in violence across the country.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the midday blast, which also wounded at least 27 people, but authorities have struggled over the past months with a resurgent Pakistani Taliban, border tensions, and a fragile ceasefire with neighboring Afghanistan.
Witnesses described scenes of mayhem in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The explosion, heard for miles away, came at a busy time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending court hearings.
The attacker tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told journalists. Earlier reports by Pakistani state-run media and two security officials said a car bomb had caused the explosion.
Naqvi alleged that the attack was “carried out by Indian-backed elements and Afghan Taliban proxies” linked to the Pakistani Taliban. Still, he said authorities are “looking into all aspects” of the explosion.
Outside the court
Police quickly cordoned off the area around the court as a cloud of smoke rose into the sky following the blast. The casualties were mostly passersby or those who had arrived for court appointments, according to Islamabad police.
More than a dozen badly wounded people were screaming for help as ambulances rushed to the scene.
“People started running in all directions,” said Mohammad Afzal, who was at the court at the time.
Naqvi said the discovery nearby of a severed head, which the police said belonged to the attacker, confirmed the blast was a suicide attack. The attacker was also later spotted in CCTV footage from the site, he said.
Overnight attack at an army-run college
Meanwhile, Pakistani security forces said they foiled an attempt by militants to take cadets hostage at an army-run college overnight, when a suicide car bomber and five other attackers targeted the facility in a northwestern province.
The authorities blamed the Pakistani Taliban, which is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, but the group denied involvement in that attack.
The attack started on Monday evening, when a bomber tried to storm the cadet college in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. The area had, until recent years, served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida, and other foreign militants.
According to Alamgir Mahsud, the local police chief, two of the militants were quickly killed by troops while three others managed to enter the compound before being cornered in an administrative block. The army’s commandoes were among the forces conducting a clearance operation and an intermittent exchange of fire that went on for hours, Mahsud added.
Quote:At least eight people were killed and 20 injured in after a car exploded near Delhi’s Red Fort during the evening rush Monday.
A slow-moving vehicle was seen approaching the landmark attraction in India’s capital — with it exploding after coming to a stop at a red light.
A former owner of the car has been arrested, authorities said without elaborating, according to NDTV. There were three people in the vehicle at the time of the blast, the BBC reported.
“Many [of those hurt] are not in the position of recovering,” added Dr. Manish Kumar Jha, a doctor at the local Lok Nayak Hospital, to reporters in the capital.
“An explosion occurred in that vehicle, the passengers in the vehicle and people in surrounding vehicles were impacted,” Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha told reporters.
Footage of the aftermath shows massive, orange flames and black smoke billowing from the destroyed car as residents fled the area.
Suman Mishra said she was at the Red Fort train station when the explosion happened, engulfing at least six cars and three auto-rickshaws on fire in the middle of the street.
“I was at the metro station, going down the stairs, when I heard an explosion. I turned around and saw a fire. People started running helter-skelter,” she told Reuters.
The explosion originated from a Hyundai i20 car, according to India’s federal home minister, Amit Shah.
“We are exploring all possibilities and will conduct a thorough investigation, taking all possibilities into account,” Shah told reporters.
Many of those wounded in the blast have been left “badly injured,” Dr. Jha said.
Major train stations across India, the financial capital Mumbai and the state of Uttar Pradesh were all put on high alert, officials said.
The explosion has left the nation in shock, especially since it occurred near the iconic Red Fort landmark.
Located just five miles from Indian parliament, the 17th Century monument attracts thousands of visitors every day and is home to the Independence Day speeches given by India’s prime minister every year.
Quote:Typhoon Fung-wong blew out of the northwestern Philippines on Monday after setting off floods and landslides, knocking out power to entire provinces, killing at least eight people and displacing more than 1.4 million others.
The typhoon was forecast to head northwest toward Taiwan.
Fung-wong lashed the northern Philippines while the country was still dealing with the devastation wrought last week by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central provinces on Nov. 4 before pummeling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.
Fung-wong slammed ashore in northeastern Aurora province on Sunday night as a super typhoon with sustained winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph).
The 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile)-wide storm weakened as it raked through mountainous northern provinces and agricultural plains overnight before blowing away from the province of La Union into the South China Sea, according to state forecasters.
One person drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes, and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar province when her house collapsed on her, officials said.
In the northern province of Nueva Vizcaya, three children died in two separate landslides and four others were injured, police told The Associated Press. An elderly person was killed in a mudslide in Barlig, a town in northern Mountain Province, according to officials.
Another landslide in Lubuagan town in nearby Kalinga province killed two villagers and two others were missing, provincial officials said late Monday.
More than 1.4 million people moved into emergency shelters or the homes of relatives before the typhoon made landfall, and about 318,000 remained in evacuation centers on Monday.
Fierce wind and rain flooded at least 132 northern villages, including one where some residents were trapped on their roofs as floodwaters rapidly rose. About 1,000 houses were damaged, Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV of the Office of Civil Defense and other officials said, adding that roads blocked by landslides would be cleared as the weather improved on Monday.
Quote:TAIPEI — Taiwan evacuated more than 3,000 people on Tuesday, issuing a land warning for the arrival of Typhoon Fung-wong, which is expected to dump large volumes of rain on its mountainous east coast, recently lashed by another typhoon.
The weakening Fung-wong is forecast to hit land on Wednesday on the island’s southwestern coast around the major port of Kaohsiung, after it killed 18 people while powering through the Philippines as a much stronger system.
“Fung-wong may have been downgraded to a weak typhoon, but we still cannot lower our guard,” Chen Chi-mai, the city’s mayor, told reporters.
On his Facebook page, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te urged people to keep clear of the mountains, the coast and other potentially dangerous areas.
The transport ministry said 66, mostly domestic, flights were canceled on Tuesday.
“Fung-wong may have been downgraded to a weak typhoon, but we still cannot lower our guard,” Chen Chi-mai, the city’s mayor, told reporters.
On his Facebook page, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te urged people to keep clear of the mountains, the coast and other potentially dangerous areas.
The government, which has ordered evacuations in the town of Guangfu, the scene of those deadly floods, said 3,337 people in four counties and cities had been moved to safer areas.
Hualien closed schools and offices on Tuesday, as did the neighbouring county of Yilan.
The typhoon will not directly affect the northern city of Hsinchu, home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
Most deaths in the Philippines were caused by landslides in its mountainous northern Cordilleras, senior civil defence official Raffy Alejandro told a briefing, with two people reported missing and 28 injured.
Quote:A 2,500-foot bridge partially collapsed in China following a landslide on the mountain where it was built.
The Hongqi Bridge was only just completed earlier this year.
It was part of a highway that links Sichuan and the nation’s heartland with Tibet.
Harrowing video of the incident shows the landslide pounding rubble onto the bridge, with the span collapsing under the weight and impact.
A portion of the bridge appeared to fall into the river that the bridge was built across.
The destruction sent dust and debris flying across the mountains, located in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan.
No casualties were reported.
Local officials said police in Maerkang shut down traffic on Monday afternoon after noticing cracks on the nearby slopes and roads above the bridge.
The conditions only got worse on Tuesday, leading to the massive landslide that took out the bridge, according to the local government.
The Hongqi bridge was completed earlier this year to create an easier connection between Sichuan and the Tibetan Plateau.
MIDDLE EAST
Iran smuggled $1B to Hezbollah this year despite US sanctions, Treasury official says
Treasury official John Hurley is calling for increased pressure from regional nations to cut off funding streams while Iran remains weakened
Treasury official John Hurley is calling for increased pressure from regional nations to cut off funding streams while Iran remains weakened
Quote:The Iranian regime has managed to smuggle at least $1 billion to its terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon despite heavy sanctions this year, top officials at the U.S. Treasury Department say.
John Hurley, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, says Iran remains committed to its proxy groups throughout the Middle East. Nevertheless, he says there is an opportunity to cut off the funding streams while Iran is in its current weakened state.
"There's a moment in Lebanon now. If we could get Hezbollah to disarm, the Lebanese people could get their country back," Hurley said.
"Even with everything Iran has been through, even with the economy not in great shape, they're still pumping a lot of money to their terrorist proxies," he continued.
"The key to that is to drive out the Iranian influence and control; that starts with all the money that they are pumping into Hezbollah," he argued.
Hurley pushed for the increased pressure campaign during a tour of Turkey, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Israel this weekend.
Western nations have already laid down heavy sanctions on Tehran over its unwillingness to negotiate a nuclear deal. The regime insists its nuclear development program exists solely for civilian purposes.
President Donald Trump ordered bombings on Iran's key nuclear sites earlier this year in Operation Midnight Hammer, which U.S. officials say succeeded in crippling Tehran's progress toward a bomb.
Iran has nevertheless continued its efforts to spread chaos across the globe. U.S. officials say they, along with Israel and Mexico, thwarted an Iran-backed attempt to assassinate Israel's ambassador to Mexico earlier this year.
"We thank the security and law enforcement services in Mexico for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador in Mexico," Israel’s foreign ministry told Fox News on Friday.
"The Israeli security and intelligence community will continue to work tirelessly, in full cooperation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide."
A U.S. official told Reuters the plot targeting ambassador Einat Kranz Neiger "was contained and does not pose a current threat."
Quote:Iran is accelerating its missile production with the stated goal of being able to fire 2,000 missiles at once in any future confrontation with Israel, aiming to overwhelm the country’s advanced defense systems, according to a report by The New York Times.
The ambition marks a sharp escalation from June's 12-day war, when Iran launched roughly 500 missiles in retaliation for Israeli strikes on its critical infrastructure, military bases and nuclear facilities. Officials have reportedly said missile factories are operating around the clock to achieve this larger-scale capability.
Newsweek has contacted Iran and Israel's Foreign Ministries for comment.
Why It Matters
Iran’s expanding missile program underscores the growing volatility in the Middle East. If Tehran reaches its target capacity, Israel’s multi-layered missile defenses could face unprecedented pressure. The buildup occurs amid a tense stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program and President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy.
Earlier this year, Israel's surprise attack on Iran sparked a 12-day conflict that concluded with U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. While the war temporarily paused hostilities, it left both sides poised for renewed confrontation. Tehran’s accelerated missile production and ongoing nuclear activity suggest that any future clash could exceed the scale of the previous exchange, raising the risk of rapid escalation across the region.
What to Know
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Iran has shifted toward mass-strike readiness, with missile factories reportedly operating 24 hours a day to reach the explicit goal of being able to launch 2,000 missiles simultaneously. Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, told the NYT that Tehran hopes to “overwhelm Israeli defenses” in a future confrontation, rather than repeating the more limited response seen in June.
Regional Isolation
This push comes amid a broader context of regional isolation and strategic recalibration. According to the report, Iran is more isolated from the West than it has been in decades. Competing regional Arab powers, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have increased influence in Washington and with Trump, leveraging both economic ties and cooperation on regional conflicts, including attempts to mediate the Gaza war.
Syria’s new president is set to visit Washington seeking U.S. support; under the previous Assad government, Syria had been a key Iranian strategic ally. An erosion of influence in key regional capitals appears to be reinforcing Tehran’s focus on self-reliance, missile buildup, and nuclear expansion as a hedge against reduced diplomatic leverage.
Israeli Perspective
Israel’s perspective reflects the urgency these developments create. Israeli officials view Iran’s nuclear and missile advances as existential threats. Although Israel’s June offensive was halted under U.S. pressure, officials reportedly consider the work unfinished and see no barrier to resuming strikes if Iran continues advancing its nuclear and missile programs.
Nuclear Inspections
In related news, on Monday Iran’s foreign ministry confirmed that U.N. inspectors had visited its nuclear sites, a week after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) urged Tehran to “seriously improve” cooperation to avoid escalating tensions with the West. The agency has conducted roughly a dozen inspections since June but reported last week that it had been denied access to facilities including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, all of which were targeted by U.S. strikes.
“As long as we are NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) members, we will abide by our commitments. Inspectors visited several facilities, including the Tehran Research Reactor,” said Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, without specifying the other sites, underscoring Iran’s cautious approach to international oversight.
Quote:A top aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Washington seeks to keep Latin America under its control, pursuing a "backyard" policy that dates back to the Monroe era.
"Today, the United States faces a legitimacy crisis not only in the Middle East but also in Latin America and East Asia," Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei's adviser on international affairs, told Iran's state media in an interview published on Tuesday.
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. State Department for comment.
Why It Matters
Iran has condemned increased U.S. military activities near Venezuela. U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated the U.S. military's counter-narcotics posture in the southern Caribbean region, carrying out multiple strikes on vessels alleged to be trafficking drugs from Venezuelan waters. The strikes have fanned concerns in Caracas about regime-change intentions disguised as anti-drug operations.
Iran, a principal challenger to U.S. influence in the East—alongside powers such as China and Russia—has long positioned itself as part of an emerging multipolar order countering Washington's dominance. Velayati echoed this view, describing what he called a global transition "from a unipolar to a multipolar and just order," driven by growing coordination among Eastern powers seeking to counter U.S. unilateralism.
What To Know
In a detailed interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency, Velayati highlighted Russia and China as examples of countries countering U.S. unilateralism, citing Moscow's resurgence under President Vladimir Putin and Beijing's rapid economic growth and strategic independence.
"The strategic alliance of China and Russia within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS clearly signals the emergence of a new Eastern pole standing against the unilateral policies of the United States," he said.
BRICS, a group of 10 major emerging economies, formed in 2009 to promote economic cooperation, political coordination and development among its members. The group's founding members were Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined in 2010, while the remaining five members—Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia—joined in the past two years.
Velayati also positioned Iran as a central actor in the Middle East, part of a broader "resistance front" that, together with these emerging powers, is shaping a multipolar order to challenge Washington's global dominance.
The U.S.'s calls for Hezbollah's disarmament, aimed at reducing Tehran's influence in Lebanon and curbing the group's military capabilities, are countered by Iran's continued political and military support for the organization. Trump, who brokered the Abraham Accords, seeks to push more Arab countries toward normalization agreements with Israel, the U.S.'s key ally. The American president views Iran as a major obstacle to those efforts.
Tensions between Iran and the U.S. remain high over the nuclear issue, with Washington conducting targeted strikes in June amid concerns about Tehran's program.
What People Are Saying
Ali Akbar Velayati, the adviser for international affairs to Iran's supreme leader, told the Islamic Republic News Agency in Persian on Tuesday: "The U.S. seeks to expand its influence from South America to the North Pole and simultaneously aims to control strategic areas such as the Panama Canal, Venezuela, Chile, and Bolivia."
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on November 7: "Iran has been asking if the sanctions could be lifted. Iran has got very heavy U.S. sanctions and it makes it really hard for them to do what they'd like to be able to do. And I'm open to hearing that, and we'll see what happens, but I would be open to it."
Quote:Tens of thousands of people packed a cemetery in central Israel on Tuesday for the funeral of an Israeli soldier whose body had been held in Gaza for 11 years, overflowing and blocking surrounding streets as somber crowds stood with Israeli flags.
The burial of Lt. Hadar Goldin was a moment of closure for his family, which had traveled the world in a public campaign seeking his return. The huge turnout also reflected the importance of the case for the broader public in Israel, where Goldin became a household name during the struggle to bring his remains home.
Hamas returned his remains on Sunday as part of the Trump-brokered ceasefire deal that began last month. The bodies of four hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, are still in Gaza.
Goldin was 23 when he was killed two hours after a ceasefire took effect in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. For years before the 2023 attack, posters with the faces of Goldin and Oron Shaul, another soldier whose body was abducted in the 2014 war, stared down from intersections as their families campaigned for the return of their bodies.
Israel’s military long ago determined that Goldin had been killed based on evidence found in the tunnel where his body was taken, including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes. The military retrieved Shaul’s body in January. On Tuesday, it announced it had dismantled the tunnel shaft where his body was found.
“Hadar, we waited for you 11 years, that’s a long time. A very long time. I honestly can’t explain how we did it,” Goldin’s mother, Leah, said as she stood next to his grave. Even though there was never any doubt that Goldin had been killed, being able to reach out and touch his body finally allowed her to let go of her last hopes. “I still believed you would jump up and say ‘Everything is fine!’” she said.
Eulogies from Goldin’s siblings, parents, and former fiancee at his funeral never mentioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also prime minister when Goldin was kidnapped and for most of the period since. They continuously thanked the Israeli military, including reserve soldiers, who tirelessly searched for Goldin’s body over the years.
Netanyahu did not attend the funeral, though Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, gave a eulogy on behalf of the military. Benny Gantz, an opposition lawmaker who was the chief of staff during Goldin’s abduction, attended with former military leaders.
AFRICA
Quote:Intense fighting in central Sudan displaced some 2,000 people over the past three days, the U.N. migration agency said Monday, the latest in a war that has convulsed the country for more than two years and killed tens of thousands.
The International Organization for Migration said the displaced fled from several towns and villages in the area of Bara in North Kordofan province between Friday and Sunday.
Kordofan has been one of two areas, along with the western Darfur region, that recently became the epicenter of the war between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The RSF capture of the key city of el-Fasher left hundreds dead and forced tens of thousands to flee to overcrowded camps to escape reported atrocities by the paramilitary force, according to aid groups and U.N. officials. The IOM said nearly 92,000 people have left el-Fasher and surrounding villages.
The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising. The fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, and displaced 12 million. However, aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher.
In late October, RSF fighters launched attacks in the town of Bara in North Kordofan, killing at least 47 people, including women and children, the local aid group Sudan Doctors Network said at the time.
The IOM estimated that nearly 39,000 people had fled several villages and towns in North Kordofan since Oct. 26. They were mostly headed north, toward the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and the adjacent Omdurman region, as well as Sheikan in North Kordofan.
Also Monday, the RSF claimed its fighters entered the town of Babanusa in West Kordofan province and were heading toward the army headquarters.
Salah Semsaya, a volunteer with the local group Emergency Response Rooms, told The Associated Press that other volunteers from the town of Babanusa working with charity kitchens in the area reported a decline in the number of families coming to get food — apparently an indication that many had left or fled the area. Definitive figures could not be confirmed.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
![[Image: SP1-Scripter.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Scripter.png)
![[Image: SP1-Writer.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Writer.png)
![[Image: SP1-Poet.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Poet.png)
![[Image: SP1-PixelArtist.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-PixelArtist.png)
![[Image: SP1-Reporter.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/GmxWbHyL/SP1-Reporter.png)
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
