Latest News India and World LIVE Updates: North Korea tests AI missile, flydubai attack, and more

Capt Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was attacked by his co-pilot during the latter's alleged attempt to crash a flydubai aircraft, described the incident in detail to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday. Recalling the attack inside the cockpit, Machchhar said he felt a “big blow to the back of the head” and that “the blows kept coming”.

Notably, UAE investigators have said that the co-pilot planned the "terrorist act" and attacked Machchhar with an axe. Airlines are generally required to keep crash axes in cockpits, which can be used in emergencies to break a window for escape or open a panel to reach a fire.

Iran ⁠will upgrade its long-range missiles with US forces now positioned as ‌much as 1,000km (620 miles) away from the Iranian coast, army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia says. “During this war, we concluded that ⁠we absolutely must increase ⁠the range ⁠of our missiles, and we have now ‌moved in that direction,” he told Fars news agency.

News sources reported the suspension of air operations at Taif International Airport in Saudi Arabia. No further details have been released yet on the reason for the suspension.

A US Marine stationed on at Japan's Okinawa has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman.

Outdoor businesses and public events shutter as torrential rains lash the Catalonian city of Barcelona, with authorities reporting two dead and one person missing in the region. 

A fire swept through a campsite in the northern Italian town of Peschiera del Garda on Sunday, damaging bungalows, vehicles and nearby vegetation, emergency services said.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy with guided aerial bombs, injuring at least seven people, including a child, State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Sunday.

 "If our enemies again choose the path of military confrontation, our response will be stronger than before, and we will defend ourselves with even more force," said Araghchi.

“There is no military solution, nor is there a solution based on new sanctions,” he added.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi stated Saturday that former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina's arrival in New Delhi two years ago was “unexpected”, emphasising that the Indian military played no role in flight arrangements.
Speaking at the Bay of Bengal Conversation in Dhaka, an event organised by a local think tank Centre for Governance Studies, Trivedi addressed queries regarding her legal status and ongoing extradition discourses.
 

Addressing demands concerning her legal status and extradition, Trivedi stated, "Hasinaji was not brought to India by the Indian Air Force or the Indian Army." He further noted, "It so happened because of the tragic circumstances in Bangladesh during that time. We hope and pray that should never happen, where innocent people get killed, doesn’t matter in which part of the world."
The High Commissioner noted that Indian authorities were caught unawares by the sudden development. 

Several revelations have come to the fore about the flydubai co-pilot, who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight and attacked a colleague in the cockpit. One among them is that he did a distance-learning course in aviation management from a university in UK and did not take any pilot training there. READ MORE

The flydubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight and attacked a colleague in the cockpit spent about two years in Australia as a student. The revelation has led to Australian Federal Police (AFP) to launch an investigation. The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, comprising the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO are involved in the probe, said an AFP spokesperson. READ MORE

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday (Oct 4) confirmed launch of a missile that allegedly uses artificial intelligence (AI) to adjust its trajectory. He said that he oversaw the launch with his daughter Kim Ju Ae, state media reported. The AI technology means the missile is "capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude", Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong said, adding this meant there was "no way to avoid" the attack. READ MORE

Millions of Brazilians are voting on Sunday in an election dominated by two rivals: incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro who Lula defeated four years ago. While there are twelve candidates on the presidential ballot, the real contest is between Lula and Bolsonaro. If no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote, the top 2 will advance to a runoff on Oct. 25. READ MORE

The US Coast Guard on Sunday (local time) has found debris of Ontario air ambulance jet that went missing while flying from Bermuda to Boston, with the six people on board. While the US Coast Guard have located the debris, the six people onboard are still unaccounted for. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told the Coast Guard on Saturday night (local time) that it had lost contact with a Gulfstream G100 with the tail number C-GRJP. The US Coast Guard launched an air and surface search after it was reported about the incident. The Coast Guard confirmed that the plane carried four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals. READ MORE

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray are leading a joint protest march in Mumbai on Sunday (Oct 4). The protest is against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, with the parties alleging irregularities in the electoral process and demanding his resignation. Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray announced this protest march – “Garjana Morcha” and this follows the mass "Jail Bharo" demonstration organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Shivaji Park on October 2, 2026. The October 2 protest at Shivaji Park was held despite police denying permission for the gathering. The Thackeray cousins had announced the October 4 march last month, with the protest focused on the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. READ MORE

US President Donald Trump’s top national security aides held an unpublicised meeting at Camp David on Friday, conferring for several hours to discuss next steps in the war with Iran alongside the Saudi-backed campaign targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, Axios reported, citing three US officials. 
The administration made no public announcements regarding the gathering, which transpired as negotiations with Tehran remained deadlocked. Trump Administration is weighing whether to re-engage in major combat operations against the Iran.  Vice President JD Vance presided over the discussions. He was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US War Secretary Peter Hegseth, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Dan Caine and other senior officials.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, alongside the Seattle regional chapter of the American Jewish Committee, has commended Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his exemplary actions in preventing an attempted hijacking aboard a Flydubai service operating from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Expressing his admiration via social media, Landau praised Captain Machchhar and the passengers on Flydubai flight FZ1073 for averting a major security disaster. “I’d like to express my utmost respect and, frankly, awe to Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot of Flydubai flight FZ1073, and to Yaniv Huyan and the other mostly Israeli passengers on that flight for preventing what would have been one of the world’s most horrific terrorist incidents,” Landau stated. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that Ukraine will intensify attacks on Russian oil refineries as a countermeasure against Moscow's newly adopted policy of airstrikes intended to coerce residents into abandoning Kyiv and other urban centres, while maintaining that civilian objects will not be targeted.
 

In an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy stated that Ukrainian intelligence services obtained documentation indicating that Russian leader Vladimir Putin instituted a "new doctrine" focused on extensive military attacks across a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of the winter season.
"We saw documents, and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure, logistics, and especially to attack in the cities, in the villages, everywhere, roads, schools, hospitals," Zelenskyy told Reuters in the interview. "To pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities: this is the goal of the operation."

Two critically endangered Sumatran rhinos have fallen pregnant at an Indonesian sanctuary, boosting hopes for the survival of one of the world's rarest and most threatened mammals, the government said on Sunday.

News agency AFP reports, Ratu, a female Sumatran rhino at the Way Kambas National Park on Sumatra island, has been pregnant with her fourth calf for 238 days  -- nearly half the gestation period.

Ratu means "queen" in Indonesian.

Ratu's daughter, Delilah, is more than 250 days into a pregnancy with her second calf, and both should give birth in May next year.

A 20-year-old US Marine stationed on Japan's southern island of Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman, police said on Sunday (Oct 4).

The suspect "killed the 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet on Saturday," a local police spokesman told news agency AFP.

US Ambassador George Glass posted on social media that he had spoken with Japan's foreign ministry and Okinawa's governor to offer "our sincere condolences and pledging full cooperation as the investigation continues".

A major security lapse has surfaced in Israel after the Flydubai incident as it was revealed that the co-pilot, who attacked was of Omani nationality. According to the Powers for Collection and Analysis of Passenger Data of those Entering or Exiting Israel Law, 5783-2023 that was passed in 2023 stated that airlines will share complete flight crew details to Israeli security agencies. The data is then intended to be distributed to security agencies like the Shin Bet, the Mossad, and the Israel Police. Security officials confirmed that Israel did receive the complete crew manifest for Flydubai Flight FZ1073 before it took off from Dubai. 

Read more

The prison chief in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned, the governor said Saturday, after an unprecedented botched execution left a convicted murderer on a ventilator in critical condition.

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will leave his post this month, Governor Bill Lee said in a statement.

Christa Pike, 50, on Wednesday survived two lethal injections of pentobarbital, a drug that suppresses nervous system activity.

Media witnesses listened to her snoring for about an hour after being administered the deadly doses, and said she was alive as they were ushered out of the execution chamber viewing area at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Protests by teenagers outside their schools have shaken France in recent days, with students blockading entrances to their institutions and security forces on occasion responding with tear gas news agency AFP reported.

The government has said that while the grievances may be legitimate, violence is not and has accused the hard-left of whipping up the movement.

Critics have meanwhile accused some police of heavy-handed force against protesters, who are legally still children.

A six-year-old girl's request to use the lavatory put her and her mother in a position to raise the alarm during an attack in the cockpit of a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv on Wednesday (Sep 30). Nina Manes asked her mother, Tali, to take her to the toilet just as a co-pilot began stabbing the Indian captain, Smit Machchhar. Tali Manes heard shouting from the cockpit and called for help, which sent cabin crew rushing to the scene. 

Read more

Trump administration is pushing more than $175 million of the State Department’s flagship human rights fund toward conservative and far-right initiatives abroad just before funding expired on September 30. Approximately $176.9 million out of $205 million appropriated for the HRDF was moved into 43 specific awards. 

Among the awards were a huge $40m grant for an anti-communism fund support led by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC). Another was for a group advancing white Afrikaner rights in South Africa, a $1 million campaign against Brazil’s Supreme Court. The Trump administration has clashed with the Lula government and has imposed sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Read more

Capt Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was attacked by his co-pilot during the latter's alleged attempt to crash a flydubai aircraft, described the incident in detail to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday. Recalling the attack inside the cockpit, Machchhar said he felt a “big blow to the back of the head” and that “the blows kept coming”.

Notably, UAE investigators have said that the co-pilot planned the "terrorist act" and attacked Machchhar with an axe. Airlines are generally required to keep crash axes in cockpits, which can be used in emergencies to break a window for escape or open a panel to reach a fire.

Iran ⁠will upgrade its long-range missiles with US forces now positioned as ‌much as 1,000km (620 miles) away from the Iranian coast, army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia says. “During this war, we concluded that ⁠we absolutely must increase ⁠the range ⁠of our missiles, and we have now ‌moved in that direction,” he told Fars news agency.

News sources reported the suspension of air operations at Taif International Airport in Saudi Arabia. No further details have been released yet on the reason for the suspension.

A US Marine stationed on at Japan's Okinawa has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman.

Outdoor businesses and public events shutter as torrential rains lash the Catalonian city of Barcelona, with authorities reporting two dead and one person missing in the region. 

A fire swept through a campsite in the northern Italian town of Peschiera del Garda on Sunday, damaging bungalows, vehicles and nearby vegetation, emergency services said.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy with guided aerial bombs, injuring at least seven people, including a child, State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Sunday.

 "If our enemies again choose the path of military confrontation, our response will be stronger than before, and we will defend ourselves with even more force," said Araghchi.

“There is no military solution, nor is there a solution based on new sanctions,” he added.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi stated Saturday that former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina's arrival in New Delhi two years ago was “unexpected”, emphasising that the Indian military played no role in flight arrangements.
Speaking at the Bay of Bengal Conversation in Dhaka, an event organised by a local think tank Centre for Governance Studies, Trivedi addressed queries regarding her legal status and ongoing extradition discourses.
 

Addressing demands concerning her legal status and extradition, Trivedi stated, "Hasinaji was not brought to India by the Indian Air Force or the Indian Army." He further noted, "It so happened because of the tragic circumstances in Bangladesh during that time. We hope and pray that should never happen, where innocent people get killed, doesn’t matter in which part of the world."
The High Commissioner noted that Indian authorities were caught unawares by the sudden development. 

Several revelations have come to the fore about the flydubai co-pilot, who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight and attacked a colleague in the cockpit. One among them is that he did a distance-learning course in aviation management from a university in UK and did not take any pilot training there. READ MORE

The flydubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight and attacked a colleague in the cockpit spent about two years in Australia as a student. The revelation has led to Australian Federal Police (AFP) to launch an investigation. The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, comprising the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO are involved in the probe, said an AFP spokesperson. READ MORE

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday (Oct 4) confirmed launch of a missile that allegedly uses artificial intelligence (AI) to adjust its trajectory. He said that he oversaw the launch with his daughter Kim Ju Ae, state media reported. The AI technology means the missile is "capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude", Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong said, adding this meant there was "no way to avoid" the attack. READ MORE

Millions of Brazilians are voting on Sunday in an election dominated by two rivals: incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro who Lula defeated four years ago. While there are twelve candidates on the presidential ballot, the real contest is between Lula and Bolsonaro. If no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote, the top 2 will advance to a runoff on Oct. 25. READ MORE

The US Coast Guard on Sunday (local time) has found debris of Ontario air ambulance jet that went missing while flying from Bermuda to Boston, with the six people on board. While the US Coast Guard have located the debris, the six people onboard are still unaccounted for. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told the Coast Guard on Saturday night (local time) that it had lost contact with a Gulfstream G100 with the tail number C-GRJP. The US Coast Guard launched an air and surface search after it was reported about the incident. The Coast Guard confirmed that the plane carried four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals. READ MORE

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray are leading a joint protest march in Mumbai on Sunday (Oct 4). The protest is against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, with the parties alleging irregularities in the electoral process and demanding his resignation. Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray announced this protest march – “Garjana Morcha” and this follows the mass "Jail Bharo" demonstration organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Shivaji Park on October 2, 2026. The October 2 protest at Shivaji Park was held despite police denying permission for the gathering. The Thackeray cousins had announced the October 4 march last month, with the protest focused on the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. READ MORE

US President Donald Trump’s top national security aides held an unpublicised meeting at Camp David on Friday, conferring for several hours to discuss next steps in the war with Iran alongside the Saudi-backed campaign targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, Axios reported, citing three US officials. 
The administration made no public announcements regarding the gathering, which transpired as negotiations with Tehran remained deadlocked. Trump Administration is weighing whether to re-engage in major combat operations against the Iran.  Vice President JD Vance presided over the discussions. He was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US War Secretary Peter Hegseth, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Dan Caine and other senior officials.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, alongside the Seattle regional chapter of the American Jewish Committee, has commended Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his exemplary actions in preventing an attempted hijacking aboard a Flydubai service operating from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Expressing his admiration via social media, Landau praised Captain Machchhar and the passengers on Flydubai flight FZ1073 for averting a major security disaster. “I’d like to express my utmost respect and, frankly, awe to Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot of Flydubai flight FZ1073, and to Yaniv Huyan and the other mostly Israeli passengers on that flight for preventing what would have been one of the world’s most horrific terrorist incidents,” Landau stated. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that Ukraine will intensify attacks on Russian oil refineries as a countermeasure against Moscow's newly adopted policy of airstrikes intended to coerce residents into abandoning Kyiv and other urban centres, while maintaining that civilian objects will not be targeted.
 

In an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy stated that Ukrainian intelligence services obtained documentation indicating that Russian leader Vladimir Putin instituted a "new doctrine" focused on extensive military attacks across a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of the winter season.
"We saw documents, and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure, logistics, and especially to attack in the cities, in the villages, everywhere, roads, schools, hospitals," Zelenskyy told Reuters in the interview. "To pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities: this is the goal of the operation."

Two critically endangered Sumatran rhinos have fallen pregnant at an Indonesian sanctuary, boosting hopes for the survival of one of the world's rarest and most threatened mammals, the government said on Sunday.

News agency AFP reports, Ratu, a female Sumatran rhino at the Way Kambas National Park on Sumatra island, has been pregnant with her fourth calf for 238 days  -- nearly half the gestation period.

Ratu means "queen" in Indonesian.

Ratu's daughter, Delilah, is more than 250 days into a pregnancy with her second calf, and both should give birth in May next year.

A 20-year-old US Marine stationed on Japan's southern island of Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman, police said on Sunday (Oct 4).

The suspect "killed the 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet on Saturday," a local police spokesman told news agency AFP.

US Ambassador George Glass posted on social media that he had spoken with Japan's foreign ministry and Okinawa's governor to offer "our sincere condolences and pledging full cooperation as the investigation continues".

A major security lapse has surfaced in Israel after the Flydubai incident as it was revealed that the co-pilot, who attacked was of Omani nationality. According to the Powers for Collection and Analysis of Passenger Data of those Entering or Exiting Israel Law, 5783-2023 that was passed in 2023 stated that airlines will share complete flight crew details to Israeli security agencies. The data is then intended to be distributed to security agencies like the Shin Bet, the Mossad, and the Israel Police. Security officials confirmed that Israel did receive the complete crew manifest for Flydubai Flight FZ1073 before it took off from Dubai. 

Read more

The prison chief in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned, the governor said Saturday, after an unprecedented botched execution left a convicted murderer on a ventilator in critical condition.

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will leave his post this month, Governor Bill Lee said in a statement.

Christa Pike, 50, on Wednesday survived two lethal injections of pentobarbital, a drug that suppresses nervous system activity.

Media witnesses listened to her snoring for about an hour after being administered the deadly doses, and said she was alive as they were ushered out of the execution chamber viewing area at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Protests by teenagers outside their schools have shaken France in recent days, with students blockading entrances to their institutions and security forces on occasion responding with tear gas news agency AFP reported.

The government has said that while the grievances may be legitimate, violence is not and has accused the hard-left of whipping up the movement.

Critics have meanwhile accused some police of heavy-handed force against protesters, who are legally still children.

A six-year-old girl's request to use the lavatory put her and her mother in a position to raise the alarm during an attack in the cockpit of a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv on Wednesday (Sep 30). Nina Manes asked her mother, Tali, to take her to the toilet just as a co-pilot began stabbing the Indian captain, Smit Machchhar. Tali Manes heard shouting from the cockpit and called for help, which sent cabin crew rushing to the scene. 

Read more

Trump administration is pushing more than $175 million of the State Department’s flagship human rights fund toward conservative and far-right initiatives abroad just before funding expired on September 30. Approximately $176.9 million out of $205 million appropriated for the HRDF was moved into 43 specific awards. 

Among the awards were a huge $40m grant for an anti-communism fund support led by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC). Another was for a group advancing white Afrikaner rights in South Africa, a $1 million campaign against Brazil’s Supreme Court. The Trump administration has clashed with the Lula government and has imposed sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Read more

Capt Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was attacked by his co-pilot during the latter's alleged attempt to crash a flydubai aircraft, described the incident in detail to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday. Recalling the attack inside the cockpit, Machchhar said he felt a “big blow to the back of the head” and that “the blows kept coming”.

Notably, UAE investigators have said that the co-pilot planned the "terrorist act" and attacked Machchhar with an axe. Airlines are generally required to keep crash axes in cockpits, which can be used in emergencies to break a window for escape or open a panel to reach a fire.

Iran ⁠will upgrade its long-range missiles with US forces now positioned as ‌much as 1,000km (620 miles) away from the Iranian coast, army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia says. “During this war, we concluded that ⁠we absolutely must increase ⁠the range ⁠of our missiles, and we have now ‌moved in that direction,” he told Fars news agency.

News sources reported the suspension of air operations at Taif International Airport in Saudi Arabia. No further details have been released yet on the reason for the suspension.

A US Marine stationed on at Japan's Okinawa has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman.

Outdoor businesses and public events shutter as torrential rains lash the Catalonian city of Barcelona, with authorities reporting two dead and one person missing in the region. 

A fire swept through a campsite in the northern Italian town of Peschiera del Garda on Sunday, damaging bungalows, vehicles and nearby vegetation, emergency services said.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy with guided aerial bombs, injuring at least seven people, including a child, State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Sunday.

 "If our enemies again choose the path of military confrontation, our response will be stronger than before, and we will defend ourselves with even more force," said Araghchi.

“There is no military solution, nor is there a solution based on new sanctions,” he added.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi stated Saturday that former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina's arrival in New Delhi two years ago was “unexpected”, emphasising that the Indian military played no role in flight arrangements.
Speaking at the Bay of Bengal Conversation in Dhaka, an event organised by a local think tank Centre for Governance Studies, Trivedi addressed queries regarding her legal status and ongoing extradition discourses.
 

Addressing demands concerning her legal status and extradition, Trivedi stated, "Hasinaji was not brought to India by the Indian Air Force or the Indian Army." He further noted, "It so happened because of the tragic circumstances in Bangladesh during that time. We hope and pray that should never happen, where innocent people get killed, doesn’t matter in which part of the world."
The High Commissioner noted that Indian authorities were caught unawares by the sudden development. 

Several revelations have come to the fore about the flydubai co-pilot, who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight and attacked a colleague in the cockpit. One among them is that he did a distance-learning course in aviation management from a university in UK and did not take any pilot training there. READ MORE

The flydubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight and attacked a colleague in the cockpit spent about two years in Australia as a student. The revelation has led to Australian Federal Police (AFP) to launch an investigation. The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, comprising the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO are involved in the probe, said an AFP spokesperson. READ MORE

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday (Oct 4) confirmed launch of a missile that allegedly uses artificial intelligence (AI) to adjust its trajectory. He said that he oversaw the launch with his daughter Kim Ju Ae, state media reported. The AI technology means the missile is "capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude", Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong said, adding this meant there was "no way to avoid" the attack. READ MORE

Millions of Brazilians are voting on Sunday in an election dominated by two rivals: incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro who Lula defeated four years ago. While there are twelve candidates on the presidential ballot, the real contest is between Lula and Bolsonaro. If no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote, the top 2 will advance to a runoff on Oct. 25. READ MORE

The US Coast Guard on Sunday (local time) has found debris of Ontario air ambulance jet that went missing while flying from Bermuda to Boston, with the six people on board. While the US Coast Guard have located the debris, the six people onboard are still unaccounted for. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told the Coast Guard on Saturday night (local time) that it had lost contact with a Gulfstream G100 with the tail number C-GRJP. The US Coast Guard launched an air and surface search after it was reported about the incident. The Coast Guard confirmed that the plane carried four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals. READ MORE

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray are leading a joint protest march in Mumbai on Sunday (Oct 4). The protest is against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, with the parties alleging irregularities in the electoral process and demanding his resignation. Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray announced this protest march – “Garjana Morcha” and this follows the mass "Jail Bharo" demonstration organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Shivaji Park on October 2, 2026. The October 2 protest at Shivaji Park was held despite police denying permission for the gathering. The Thackeray cousins had announced the October 4 march last month, with the protest focused on the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. READ MORE

US President Donald Trump’s top national security aides held an unpublicised meeting at Camp David on Friday, conferring for several hours to discuss next steps in the war with Iran alongside the Saudi-backed campaign targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, Axios reported, citing three US officials. 
The administration made no public announcements regarding the gathering, which transpired as negotiations with Tehran remained deadlocked. Trump Administration is weighing whether to re-engage in major combat operations against the Iran.  Vice President JD Vance presided over the discussions. He was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US War Secretary Peter Hegseth, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Dan Caine and other senior officials.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, alongside the Seattle regional chapter of the American Jewish Committee, has commended Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his exemplary actions in preventing an attempted hijacking aboard a Flydubai service operating from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Expressing his admiration via social media, Landau praised Captain Machchhar and the passengers on Flydubai flight FZ1073 for averting a major security disaster. “I’d like to express my utmost respect and, frankly, awe to Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot of Flydubai flight FZ1073, and to Yaniv Huyan and the other mostly Israeli passengers on that flight for preventing what would have been one of the world’s most horrific terrorist incidents,” Landau stated. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that Ukraine will intensify attacks on Russian oil refineries as a countermeasure against Moscow's newly adopted policy of airstrikes intended to coerce residents into abandoning Kyiv and other urban centres, while maintaining that civilian objects will not be targeted.
 

In an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy stated that Ukrainian intelligence services obtained documentation indicating that Russian leader Vladimir Putin instituted a "new doctrine" focused on extensive military attacks across a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of the winter season.
"We saw documents, and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure, logistics, and especially to attack in the cities, in the villages, everywhere, roads, schools, hospitals," Zelenskyy told Reuters in the interview. "To pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities: this is the goal of the operation."

Two critically endangered Sumatran rhinos have fallen pregnant at an Indonesian sanctuary, boosting hopes for the survival of one of the world's rarest and most threatened mammals, the government said on Sunday.

News agency AFP reports, Ratu, a female Sumatran rhino at the Way Kambas National Park on Sumatra island, has been pregnant with her fourth calf for 238 days  -- nearly half the gestation period.

Ratu means "queen" in Indonesian.

Ratu's daughter, Delilah, is more than 250 days into a pregnancy with her second calf, and both should give birth in May next year.

A 20-year-old US Marine stationed on Japan's southern island of Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman, police said on Sunday (Oct 4).

The suspect "killed the 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet on Saturday," a local police spokesman told news agency AFP.

US Ambassador George Glass posted on social media that he had spoken with Japan's foreign ministry and Okinawa's governor to offer "our sincere condolences and pledging full cooperation as the investigation continues".

A major security lapse has surfaced in Israel after the Flydubai incident as it was revealed that the co-pilot, who attacked was of Omani nationality. According to the Powers for Collection and Analysis of Passenger Data of those Entering or Exiting Israel Law, 5783-2023 that was passed in 2023 stated that airlines will share complete flight crew details to Israeli security agencies. The data is then intended to be distributed to security agencies like the Shin Bet, the Mossad, and the Israel Police. Security officials confirmed that Israel did receive the complete crew manifest for Flydubai Flight FZ1073 before it took off from Dubai. 

Read more

The prison chief in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned, the governor said Saturday, after an unprecedented botched execution left a convicted murderer on a ventilator in critical condition.

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will leave his post this month, Governor Bill Lee said in a statement.

Christa Pike, 50, on Wednesday survived two lethal injections of pentobarbital, a drug that suppresses nervous system activity.

Media witnesses listened to her snoring for about an hour after being administered the deadly doses, and said she was alive as they were ushered out of the execution chamber viewing area at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Protests by teenagers outside their schools have shaken France in recent days, with students blockading entrances to their institutions and security forces on occasion responding with tear gas news agency AFP reported.

The government has said that while the grievances may be legitimate, violence is not and has accused the hard-left of whipping up the movement.

Critics have meanwhile accused some police of heavy-handed force against protesters, who are legally still children.

A six-year-old girl's request to use the lavatory put her and her mother in a position to raise the alarm during an attack in the cockpit of a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv on Wednesday (Sep 30). Nina Manes asked her mother, Tali, to take her to the toilet just as a co-pilot began stabbing the Indian captain, Smit Machchhar. Tali Manes heard shouting from the cockpit and called for help, which sent cabin crew rushing to the scene. 

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Trump administration is pushing more than $175 million of the State Department’s flagship human rights fund toward conservative and far-right initiatives abroad just before funding expired on September 30. Approximately $176.9 million out of $205 million appropriated for the HRDF was moved into 43 specific awards. 

Among the awards were a huge $40m grant for an anti-communism fund support led by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC). Another was for a group advancing white Afrikaner rights in South Africa, a $1 million campaign against Brazil’s Supreme Court. The Trump administration has clashed with the Lula government and has imposed sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

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Capt Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was attacked by his co-pilot during the latter's alleged attempt to crash a flydubai aircraft, described the incident in detail to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday. Recalling the attack inside the cockpit, Machchhar said he felt a “big blow to the back of the head” and that “the blows kept coming”.

Notably, UAE investigators have said that the co-pilot planned the "terrorist act" and attacked Machchhar with an axe. Airlines are generally required to keep crash axes in cockpits, which can be used in emergencies to break a window for escape or open a panel to reach a fire.

Iran ⁠will upgrade its long-range missiles with US forces now positioned as ‌much as 1,000km (620 miles) away from the Iranian coast, army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia says. “During this war, we concluded that ⁠we absolutely must increase ⁠the range ⁠of our missiles, and we have now ‌moved in that direction,” he told Fars news agency.

News sources reported the suspension of air operations at Taif International Airport in Saudi Arabia. No further details have been released yet on the reason for the suspension.

A US Marine stationed on at Japan's Okinawa has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman.

Outdoor businesses and public events shutter as torrential rains lash the Catalonian city of Barcelona, with authorities reporting two dead and one person missing in the region. 

A fire swept through a campsite in the northern Italian town of Peschiera del Garda on Sunday, damaging bungalows, vehicles and nearby vegetation, emergency services said.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy with guided aerial bombs, injuring at least seven people, including a child, State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Sunday.

 "If our enemies again choose the path of military confrontation, our response will be stronger than before, and we will defend ourselves with even more force," said Araghchi.

“There is no military solution, nor is there a solution based on new sanctions,” he added.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi stated Saturday that former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina's arrival in New Delhi two years ago was “unexpected”, emphasising that the Indian military played no role in flight arrangements.
Speaking at the Bay of Bengal Conversation in Dhaka, an event organised by a local think tank Centre for Governance Studies, Trivedi addressed queries regarding her legal status and ongoing extradition discourses.
 

Addressing demands concerning her legal status and extradition, Trivedi stated, "Hasinaji was not brought to India by the Indian Air Force or the Indian Army." He further noted, "It so happened because of the tragic circumstances in Bangladesh during that time. We hope and pray that should never happen, where innocent people get killed, doesn’t matter in which part of the world."
The High Commissioner noted that Indian authorities were caught unawares by the sudden development. 

Several revelations have come to the fore about the flydubai co-pilot, who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight and attacked a colleague in the cockpit. One among them is that he did a distance-learning course in aviation management from a university in UK and did not take any pilot training there. READ MORE

The flydubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight and attacked a colleague in the cockpit spent about two years in Australia as a student. The revelation has led to Australian Federal Police (AFP) to launch an investigation. The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, comprising the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO are involved in the probe, said an AFP spokesperson. READ MORE

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday (Oct 4) confirmed launch of a missile that allegedly uses artificial intelligence (AI) to adjust its trajectory. He said that he oversaw the launch with his daughter Kim Ju Ae, state media reported. The AI technology means the missile is "capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude", Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong said, adding this meant there was "no way to avoid" the attack. READ MORE

Millions of Brazilians are voting on Sunday in an election dominated by two rivals: incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro who Lula defeated four years ago. While there are twelve candidates on the presidential ballot, the real contest is between Lula and Bolsonaro. If no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote, the top 2 will advance to a runoff on Oct. 25. READ MORE

The US Coast Guard on Sunday (local time) has found debris of Ontario air ambulance jet that went missing while flying from Bermuda to Boston, with the six people on board. While the US Coast Guard have located the debris, the six people onboard are still unaccounted for. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told the Coast Guard on Saturday night (local time) that it had lost contact with a Gulfstream G100 with the tail number C-GRJP. The US Coast Guard launched an air and surface search after it was reported about the incident. The Coast Guard confirmed that the plane carried four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals. READ MORE

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray are leading a joint protest march in Mumbai on Sunday (Oct 4). The protest is against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, with the parties alleging irregularities in the electoral process and demanding his resignation. Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray announced this protest march – “Garjana Morcha” and this follows the mass "Jail Bharo" demonstration organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Shivaji Park on October 2, 2026. The October 2 protest at Shivaji Park was held despite police denying permission for the gathering. The Thackeray cousins had announced the October 4 march last month, with the protest focused on the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. READ MORE

US President Donald Trump’s top national security aides held an unpublicised meeting at Camp David on Friday, conferring for several hours to discuss next steps in the war with Iran alongside the Saudi-backed campaign targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, Axios reported, citing three US officials. 
The administration made no public announcements regarding the gathering, which transpired as negotiations with Tehran remained deadlocked. Trump Administration is weighing whether to re-engage in major combat operations against the Iran.  Vice President JD Vance presided over the discussions. He was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US War Secretary Peter Hegseth, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Dan Caine and other senior officials.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, alongside the Seattle regional chapter of the American Jewish Committee, has commended Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his exemplary actions in preventing an attempted hijacking aboard a Flydubai service operating from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Expressing his admiration via social media, Landau praised Captain Machchhar and the passengers on Flydubai flight FZ1073 for averting a major security disaster. “I’d like to express my utmost respect and, frankly, awe to Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot of Flydubai flight FZ1073, and to Yaniv Huyan and the other mostly Israeli passengers on that flight for preventing what would have been one of the world’s most horrific terrorist incidents,” Landau stated. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that Ukraine will intensify attacks on Russian oil refineries as a countermeasure against Moscow's newly adopted policy of airstrikes intended to coerce residents into abandoning Kyiv and other urban centres, while maintaining that civilian objects will not be targeted.
 

In an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy stated that Ukrainian intelligence services obtained documentation indicating that Russian leader Vladimir Putin instituted a "new doctrine" focused on extensive military attacks across a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of the winter season.
"We saw documents, and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure, logistics, and especially to attack in the cities, in the villages, everywhere, roads, schools, hospitals," Zelenskyy told Reuters in the interview. "To pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities: this is the goal of the operation."

Two critically endangered Sumatran rhinos have fallen pregnant at an Indonesian sanctuary, boosting hopes for the survival of one of the world's rarest and most threatened mammals, the government said on Sunday.

News agency AFP reports, Ratu, a female Sumatran rhino at the Way Kambas National Park on Sumatra island, has been pregnant with her fourth calf for 238 days  -- nearly half the gestation period.

Ratu means "queen" in Indonesian.

Ratu's daughter, Delilah, is more than 250 days into a pregnancy with her second calf, and both should give birth in May next year.

A 20-year-old US Marine stationed on Japan's southern island of Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman, police said on Sunday (Oct 4).

The suspect "killed the 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet on Saturday," a local police spokesman told news agency AFP.

US Ambassador George Glass posted on social media that he had spoken with Japan's foreign ministry and Okinawa's governor to offer "our sincere condolences and pledging full cooperation as the investigation continues".

A major security lapse has surfaced in Israel after the Flydubai incident as it was revealed that the co-pilot, who attacked was of Omani nationality. According to the Powers for Collection and Analysis of Passenger Data of those Entering or Exiting Israel Law, 5783-2023 that was passed in 2023 stated that airlines will share complete flight crew details to Israeli security agencies. The data is then intended to be distributed to security agencies like the Shin Bet, the Mossad, and the Israel Police. Security officials confirmed that Israel did receive the complete crew manifest for Flydubai Flight FZ1073 before it took off from Dubai. 

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The prison chief in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned, the governor said Saturday, after an unprecedented botched execution left a convicted murderer on a ventilator in critical condition.

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will leave his post this month, Governor Bill Lee said in a statement.

Christa Pike, 50, on Wednesday survived two lethal injections of pentobarbital, a drug that suppresses nervous system activity.

Media witnesses listened to her snoring for about an hour after being administered the deadly doses, and said she was alive as they were ushered out of the execution chamber viewing area at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Protests by teenagers outside their schools have shaken France in recent days, with students blockading entrances to their institutions and security forces on occasion responding with tear gas news agency AFP reported.

The government has said that while the grievances may be legitimate, violence is not and has accused the hard-left of whipping up the movement.

Critics have meanwhile accused some police of heavy-handed force against protesters, who are legally still children.

A six-year-old girl's request to use the lavatory put her and her mother in a position to raise the alarm during an attack in the cockpit of a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv on Wednesday (Sep 30). Nina Manes asked her mother, Tali, to take her to the toilet just as a co-pilot began stabbing the Indian captain, Smit Machchhar. Tali Manes heard shouting from the cockpit and called for help, which sent cabin crew rushing to the scene. 

Read more

Trump administration is pushing more than $175 million of the State Department’s flagship human rights fund toward conservative and far-right initiatives abroad just before funding expired on September 30. Approximately $176.9 million out of $205 million appropriated for the HRDF was moved into 43 specific awards. 

Among the awards were a huge $40m grant for an anti-communism fund support led by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC). Another was for a group advancing white Afrikaner rights in South Africa, a $1 million campaign against Brazil’s Supreme Court. The Trump administration has clashed with the Lula government and has imposed sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Read more