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🇺🇸 What could the US midterm elections mean for Trump? The United States holds its midterm elections on November 3, and millions across the country have already voted to choose their new members of Congress. How are Republicans and Democrats faring? What could the vote change? And what might the midterms mean for President Donald Trump? AFP’s Will Edwards explains. ▶️

'Diabolical' Halloween festivities banned in Honduran towns on the grounds they promote wickedness

🏁 Portugal and Morocco will host the 2027 Dakar Rally the organisers announced on Friday after it was moved from Saudi Arabia following repeated attacks on the kingdom by Yemen's Houthis. ➡️

VIDEO: Coffee with a side of alpacas? Visitors to a zoo in Islamabad can now enjoy their drinks and snacks alongside a herd of ten fluffy animals.

🇪🇨 Ecuador farmers hit with 'losses of all kinds' after heavy rains flood paddy fields For several months, torrential rains have caused rivers to overflow in Ecuador's Los Rios province. The rains have flooded rice crops in the coastal province as farmers struggle to deal with the effects of El Nino and climate change.

Days before key US midterm elections that will decide the balance of power in Congress, Democrats are leaning on former president Barack Obama to energize voters and help propel the party to victory.

🇦🇺 Australian mushroom killer Erin Patterson has failed to overturn a slew of convictions, with a judge instead imposing a heavier prison sentence for three "cold and calculated" poisoning murders. ➡️

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday thanked the government of US President Donald Trump for opening the "floodgate to freedom" by capturing president Nicolas Maduro in January.

🇺🇸 Obama blasts Trump’s ‘chaos and cruelty’ ahead of US midterms Former US president Barack Obama delivered scathing criticisms of current leader Donald Trump at a rally in Georgia to support Democratic candidates ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

A Russian drone slammed into a busy railway platform in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro Thursday, killing at least 14 people in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called a "horrific" attack that demands action by Kyiv's allies.

🇮🇱 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's camp finished ahead of the opposition but remained well short of a majority, final results from Israel's general election showed Friday, setting the stage for tough coalition talks or potentially another vote. ➡️

Patrick Stewart, the British Shakespearean actor who became a Hollywood megastar through roles in the "Star Trek" and "X-Men" franchises, has died at the age of 86, an official statement said Thursday.

🎭 Patrick Stewart, the British Shakespearean actor who became a Hollywood megastar through roles in the "Star Trek" and "X-Men" franchises, has died at the age of 86, an official statement said Thursday. ➡️

🇨🇮 Ivorian reggae star Alpha Blondy abruptly interrupts his concert's chilled-out vibes to wade into a far less laid-back subject -- the coups in his country's unrest-riven Sahel neighbours, in a sign of how far Ivory Coast's ties with Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have frayed. ➡️

Alexander Zverev accelerated his ascension to number one in the world rankings for the first time in his career on Thursday as he beat Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals of the Vienna Open.

🇮🇹 School and university students are to rally in several Italian cities on Friday to call for more funding for schools and support for housing, with security forces preparing for possible clashes. ➡️

🇬🇧 🇧🇸 King Charles III dances during traditional parade in Bahamas The United Kingdom's King Charles III took part in a traditional Junkanoo street parade in the Bahamas, amid a nine-day Caribbean tour.

#BREAKING 'Star Trek', 'X-Men' star Patrick Stewart dead: statement

🇲🇽 Mexican artisans preserve traditional decorations for Day of the Dead As Mexico prepares for the Day of the Dead, artisans in the town of San Salvador Huixcolotla continue to craft the "papel picado" decorations by hand despite growing competition from mass-produced versions.

🇺🇸 🗳️ Republicans face Latino backlash ahead of midterms For nearly two years, US President Donald Trump's heavy-handed deportation drive has sowed fear in immigrant communities. Now, many Latino voters who helped propel Trump to power in 2024 say they are fed up.

A man arrested after a gun attack in the Paris suburbs that killed one person and wounding seven including a child, has admitted to "targeting individuals who appeared to be Muslim, African, or North African," prosecutors said Thursday.

⚠️ Cryptocurrency platform Binance said Friday it was working to resolve a "complex attack" that hit around $6.3 billion in funds, with about half that amount frozen to prevent a massive theft. ➡️

🇨🇳 Top Chinese Communist Party officials moved to tighten internal discipline during a key meeting that concluded on Thursday, with analysts saying the measures appeared aimed at paving the way for President Xi Jinping to extend his rule. ➡️

Spain began demanding answers on Thursday after the toll from the country's second high-speed train collision this year rose to 69 people, with scores injured and distraught relatives desperately seeking news about their loved ones. ttps://u.afp.com/SyMe

🇺🇸 Trump wants to reshape DC, will midterms halt his ambitions? With midterm elections just days away in the United States, nowhere is the impact of US President Donld Trump more visible than in the capital itself. From the White House East Wing to the Kennedy Performing Arts Center and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Trump has left his mark on multiple Washington, DC landmarks. Yet many of these projects could be stalled if Trump’s Republicans lose control of the House and Senate.

🇰🇭 'Cruise for life' passengers stranded in Cambodia amid rising fuel costs Around 200 passengers who paid to live on a cruise ship while travelling the world were abruptly left in a Cambodian port after the company ran out of money, an official has said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc on Thursday piled pressure on Arab-Israeli leaders over unproven accusations of foreign funding, in a push to neuter parties that could hold the key to forming a government after an inconclusive election.

BREAKING Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta announces it is closing, citing pressure from authorities. "Novaya Gazeta is ceasing to exist," editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov said in a statement published on YouTube

🇨🇺 Cubans seek alternative water sources amid worsening shortages Water shortages affecting nearly 29 percent of Cuba's 9.4 million inhabitants are forcing residents to seek alternative sources of supply. From hand-dug wells to long lines at water distribution points, many Cubans are adapting to recurring outages and infrastructure failures that leave homes and businesses without running water

VIDEO: Flooded rice fields in Ecuador’s Los Ríos province leave farmers struggling to harvest crops as torrential rains linked to El Niño and climate change devastate farmland.

🇷🇺 Russia's flagship independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta announced Friday it was closing, saying it had been "killed" by state pressure after years of repression targeting its journalists whose reporting was critical of the Kremlin and its Ukraine war. ➡️

🇫🇯 Fijian paradise island's residents reject calls to relocate From shore, Serua Island looks like a tropical idyll. Up close, a concrete seawall stands between the community and encroaching seas that are already swallowing parts of the island.

A landslide triggered by heavy rainfall caused a rock spire to collapse in Turkey's UNESCO World Heritage-listed Cappadocia region on Thursday, bringing the death toll to three, officials said.

🇫🇷 The French economy contracted in the third quarter, data showed Friday, and could be "headed for a wall" if the government is unable to get a deficit-reducing budget passed soon, the finance minister warned. ➡️

🇮🇩 Residents and firefighters in an Indonesian city long shrouded in a toxic haze brought on by months of wildfires rushed outside dancing and chanting as rain this week brought a welcome respite. ➡️

🇨🇦 🇪🇺 The EU and Canada want to bring their relationship to the "highest level possible" as they face a "world of growing rivalries," the 27-nation bloc's chief said Thursday ahead of a meeting with Canadian leader Mark Carney. ➡️

🇸🇹 Sao Tome develops a niche for vanilla, boosting income for local farmers It’s the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron which makes vanilla a lucrative plant to cultivate in Sao Tome and Principe.

🇷🇺 Putin hails Elon Musk as 'a genius' Russian President Vladimir Putin has said US tech tycoon Elon Musk is "truly a genius" for deploying thousands of satellites into orbit, as Moscow seeks to develop its own satellite internet network.

🇺🇸 Senior Democrats demanded Thursday that US President Donald Trump preserve records of any official exchanges with artificial intelligence chatbots, raising questions about whether Elon Musk's Grok influenced sensitive military decisions. ➡️

🇰🇭 'Cruise for life' passengers stranded in Cambodia amid rising fuel costs Around 200 passengers who paid to live on a cruise ship while travelling the world were abruptly left in a Cambodian port after the company ran out of money, an official has said.

🇺🇦 🇷🇺 At least 13 people were killed Thursday when a Russian drone slammed into a crowded platform at the Dnipro railway station in central Ukraine, where trains were parked, authorities said. ➡️

🇺🇸 'Enough is enough': Obama rallies voters in Georgia ahead of midterms Former US president Barack Obama rallies voters in Atlanta, Georgia, alongside Senator Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms ahead of midterm elections.

🇪🇸 People in Toledo reflect on 'inexplicable' Spanish train crash People in Toledo reflect the day after a high-speed rail collision that happened nearby in the central province of Castilla-La Mancha, claiming the lives of 69 people.

🇸🇬 Runners swap streets for shopping malls as haze chokes Singapore As toxic haze from Indonesian wildfires chokes Singapore, marathon runners are taking their training indoors, running inside a shopping mall ahead of the city-state's marathon next month.

🇺🇸 The United States posted strong economic growth in the third quarter, but the Fed's preferred inflation gauge also accelerated, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, in a mixed economic bag for US President Donald Trump ahead of key midterm polls next week. ➡️

🇬🇧 🇧🇸 King Charles III dances during traditional parade in Bahamas The United Kingdom's King Charles III took part in a traditional Junkanoo street parade in the Bahamas, amid a nine-day Caribbean tour.

🇪🇺 European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will step down in February 2027, months before her term expires in October next year, the Frankfurt-based institution said Thursday. ➡️

🇺🇸 Trump wants to reshape DC, will midterms halt his ambitions? With midterm elections just days away in the United States, nowhere is the impact of US President Donld Trump more visible than in the capital itself. From the White House East Wing to the Kennedy Performing Arts Center and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Trump has left his mark on multiple Washington, DC landmarks. Yet many of these projects could be stalled if Trump’s Republicans lose control of the House and Senate.

Shock, vindication, regret: Scientists react to AI roiling life's work For decades, three computer scientists built their careers around an idea about the limits of what computers can do. AI may now have shown it to be wrong

🛢️ British energy giant Shell said that its net profit more than doubled to $12.1 billion in the third quarter as the Middle East war disrupted supplies and sent oil and gas prices soaring. ➡️

📉 Wall Street's main stock indices flashed red Thursday as investors dropped shares in the parent company of Google following results that flamed concerns over whether the global technology boom can be sustained. ➡️

Charity crowdfunds millions to buy historic English estate. The purchase of the sprawling site, as large as central London, will be the opportunity "to create something very special for generations to come", said renowned environmentalist David Attenborough, who backed the campaign to buy Rothbury Estate

🇮🇱 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc have piled pressure on Israeli Arab leaders over unproven accusations of foreign funding, in a push to neuter parties that made strong gains after an otherwise indecisive election. ➡️

🇺🇸 Alaska's governor has ordered a probe into allegations that the campaign of a Democratic candidate for the US Senate recruited a man with the same name as her Republican opponent to run for office in a bid to siphon off votes. ➡️