“Munich Airport in Germany was forced to close for almost seven hours overnight after a wave of drone sightings, the latest European aviation hub to shutter over unexplained drone flights. A total of 17 flights were grounded shortly after 10 p.m. local time on Thursday, affecting nearly 3,000 passengers, the airport said in a statement. In addition, 15 arriving flights were diverted to the German cities of Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Frankfurt, as well as Vienna in neighboring Austria, the statement said. … Europe has been on high alert in recent weeks due to a string of drone sightings, as well as alleged incursions by Russian drones into NATO airspace over Poland and Romania, and the alleged violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets.” (10/03/25)
“The White House on Wednesday sent letters to nine of the nation’s top public and private universities, urging campus leaders to pledge support for President Trump’s political agenda to help ensure access to federal research funds. The letters came attached to a 10-page ‘compact’ that serves as a sort of priority statement for the administration’s educational goals — the most comprehensive accounting to date of what Mr. Trump aims to achieve from an unparalleled, monthslong pressure campaign on academia. The compact would require colleges to freeze tuition for five years, cap the enrollment of international students and commit to strict definitions of gender. Among other steps, universities would also be required to change their governance structures to prohibit anything that would ‘punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative [sic] ideas.'” (10/02/25)
“Protesters took to the streets of more than 200 towns and cities across France on Thursday to denounce spending cuts and demand higher taxes on the rich. In Paris, thousands of workers, retirees and students marched on Thursday afternoon from Place d’Italie. The Eiffel Tower informed visitors in a statement it was closed due to the strikes. The nationwide strikes, called by France’s major unions, are the latest of a series of protests that started last month fueled by political turmoil and heated budget talks.” (10/02/25)
“The deputy leader of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, which opposes the war in Ukraine, has been charged with deliberately spreading lies about the Russian army, state investigators said on Thursday. … Yabloko, which has only a handful of seats in regional parliaments and no seats in the national parliament, condemned President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and appealed to him to reverse course. One of its other senior figures, Lev Shlosberg, was placed under house arrest in June after being charged with discrediting the Russian army, and another, Boris Vishnevsky, ran into problems on Tuesday when a court said it would consider a request from state prosecutors to designate his book extremist.” (10/02/25)
“One person has died and four others were injured on Thursday after an explosion at an Iranian university laboratory, according to local media reports. It is believed the blast was caused by a hydrogen capsule at Tehran University’s engineering and technical college, in the Amirabad neighborhood of the capital, Tehran, several news outlets reported, citing Tehran fire department spokesman Jalal Maleki.” (10/02/25)
“Two people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in antigovernment protests in Morocco, the police said on Thursday, as youth-led demonstrations driven by growing anger over public services and allegations of corruption entered a sixth day. The protests began after a loosely organized group known as Gen Z 212 took to social media to call for better schools, hospitals and for broader freedoms in the North African country. Demonstrators initially took to the streets in major cities including Rabat, the capital; and Casablanca, contrasting the millions that the government was spending to host the 2030 soccer World Cup with the dire state of public services. The protests soon spread to smaller cities and towns across Morocco.” (10/02/25)
“New York state’s Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offices will permanently close in direct response to Attorney General Letitia James'[s] ‘corrupt and dangerous business practices’ in the state, Fox News Digital learned Thursday. ‘We are shutting down the two New York offices for Fannie and Freddie as a result of Letitia James'[s] corrupt and dangerous business practices in the state,’ a source close to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees government-sponsored enterprises, told Fox News Digital. A public announcement on the closures is set for later Thursday, Fox News Digital learned. ‘We’ll still employ New York residents, and we’ll still continue to do mortgage loans in New York, of course,’ the source continued. ‘But we are going to eliminate our physical presence.'” (10/02/25)
“Taiwan will not accept Washington’s proposal to locally manufacture half the chips it currently supplies to the U.S., the island’s top trade negotiator said. Speaking to reporters, Cheng Li-chiun, also the country’s vice premier, said on Wednesday that the proposal for a ’50-50′ split in semiconductor production was not even discussed, as she returned from trade talks in the U.S., according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency. Cheng said the talks were focused on lowering tariff rates, securing exemptions from tariff stacking — additional duties — and reducing levies on Taiwanese exports. Taiwan currently faces a ‘reciprocal’ tariff rate of 20%.” (10/02/25)
“Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth reached $500 billion Wednesday, making him the first person [publicly known] to be worth half a trillion dollars. Forbes'[s] Real-Time Billionaires list ranks him at No. 1, followed by Larry Ellison of Oracle, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Musk had a net worth of $499.1 billion at close of trading Wednesday. It spiked higher earlier in the day, when he hit $500 billion. On Sept. 10, Larry Ellison surpassed Musk for a short time when Oracle’s stock soared, but that didn’t last.” (10/02/25)
“U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet with his budget director Russell Vought on Thursday to determine which ‘Democrat Agencies’ to cut, as he looks to inflict pain on his political opposition in the second day of a government shutdown. ‘I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,’ he said in a social media post. Trump has already frozen federal transit and green-energy funding, opens new tab for Democratic-leaning states and has threatened to fire more federal workers during the shutdown, which began on Wednesday due to a partisan standoff in Congress. He is already on track to push out 300,000 federal workers by the end of the year. In his post, Trump mentioned Vought’s involvement with Project 2025, a plan by the conservative Heritage Foundation that calls for radically downsizing the federal government.” (10/02/25)
