“Four people were killed and nearly 900,000 customers were without power after Isaias roared ashore near Destin, Florida, late Friday night as a Category 2 hurricane, packing wind gusts over 100 mph and a storm surge of up to six feet. A wind gust of 117 mph was recorded in Pensacola Beach, Florida, while nearby Santa Rosa Beach experienced a gust of 116 mph. The ferocious winds drove power outages for hundreds of thousands across Florida, Alabama and Georgia, according to poweroutage.us.” (10/10/26)
“President Donald Trump openly encouraged Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to switch parties and become a Republican just weeks before the midterm elections could reshape control of Congress. ‘I’d love to see him as a Republican,’ Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday as he returned to Washington from a rally in Tennessee. ‘He does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat.’ The comments were among the most direct overtures by Trump to woo Fetterman into the GOP, a matter of growing importance as the party could lose its Senate majority in next month’s elections. With his everyman appeal, Fetterman was a Democratic star when he was first elected to the Senate in 2022. But during his time in Washington, he has split with Democrats on issues ranging from immigration to Israel, leading to speculation that he might switch parties.” (10/10/26)
“A team of researchers are on their way to a remote island to inspect what they think could be the wreckage of famed aviator Amelia Earhart’s plane. The group, from the US-based Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) and Purdue University, are expected to arrive at Nikumaroro Island in the Pacific Ocean by Monday in the hopes of solving the mystery of her disappearance. The American pioneer vanished while attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1937, spawning decades of speculation on her fate. The team are aiming to find what has been called the Taraia Object, first spotted sitting on the edge of a lagoon off Nikumaroro in satellite imagery in 2020. Purdue University said the object had since been confirmed to have been visible in aerial photography of the area dating back to 1938.” (10/10/26)
“The government of Turkey on Saturday formally banned access to social media platform for children under the age of 15. The law was published today following the Turkish Parliament’s adoption of the bill last April. The ban will come into force on Nov. 1. … Turkey joins a growing group of states, including Australia and Indonesia, that are introducing or exploring tougher age restrictions on social media access.” (10/10/26)
“The government of Panama declared a state of emergency Saturday as the aftershocks of two powerful earthquakes that roiled the country shook communities for hours. Officials did not attribute any deaths to the quakes but reported damages in all 10 of Panama’s provinces and two Indigenous territories. The 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes on Friday toppled buildings near the epicenter and prompted evacuations across the Central American country. Seismologists recorded more than 100 aftershocks, including ones measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2. The earlier quake, also felt in neighboring Colombia, was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Presidential Minister Juan Carlos Orillac announced the emergency during a news conference in the capital, Panama City. He said homes, schools, healthcare facilities, roads and hotels were among the damaged facilities.” (10/10/26)
“US President Donald Trump has said he thinks ‘it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president’ as he responded to Volodymyr Zelensky’s criticism of the US diesel deal with Russia. The Ukrainian president warned a new deal to release millions of tonnes of Russian diesel into the US would provide Moscow with money to continue its war against his nation, calling it a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday that Zelensky “wants to make problems for the world” by continuing to authorise attacks on Russian refineries. Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart ought to “stop” before suggesting Ukraine should ‘get a new leader who can make a deal’. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 the country has been under martial law, meaning elections are suspended.” (10/10/26)
“A former headmaster of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia has been named as a suspect in a sexual abuse investigation and detained by police, following a BBC Eye report. Ahmad Imanuddin Sumar, known to students as Abah, led the Abul Barokat boarding school on the island of Lombok. Police reopened the case after the BBC World Service revealed accusations of sexual abuse against him, and documented how former students had gathered evidence in an effort to bring the allegations to the authorities. The story sparked public outrage and led to 12 more former students giving testimony to police. Central to the BBC Eye investigation were former students Ziadatur Rahmah, known as Zia, and Sukma Rohana Fajar. They launched their own investigation after Zia told a former classmate, Yusron Azzahidi, that the headteacher had sexually assaulted her when she was 17.” (10/10/26)
“Christa Pike has been discharged from hospital and returned to a Tennessee women’s prison after surviving the US state’s attempt to [kill] her by lethal injection, her lawyers said on Saturday. The 50-year-old is back in the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center where she had been incarcerated for 30 years. She had been in hospital since September 30 when officials administered two doses of pentobarbital in an attempt to [kill] her. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.” (10/10/26)
“You do not stay out after dark if you’re young and able-bodied in Hpa-An, the capital of Myanmar’s southern Karen state. In recent months this has become conventional wisdom. But Zaw Min has no choice. ‘I worry, but I have to go out to work,’ says the 26-year-old tuk tuk driver, who asked that his real name be omitted out of fear for his safety. ‘My family call me all the time and remind me not to drive passengers too far; to be careful who I take as a passenger… I have to be vigilant all the time. People are panicked and frightened. Some people I know have been taken.’ Locals say plain-clothed members and supporters of the Myanmar junta have been roaming the streets of Hpa-An, arbitrarily arresting people in their teens, 20s and 30s and forcing them into military service.” (10/10/26)
“Thousands of vote-by-mail ballots in San Francisco have arrived at residents’ doorsteps with a long slit on the outer envelope this week, leading some community members to believe that they’ve been deliberately tampered with. However, after contacting the United States Postal Service, the city’s Department of Elections was able to figure out why, and has a much more mundane explanation for the ripped envelopes. After receiving reports of the torn envelopes and contacting USPS, the department found that the machines packing the mail-in ballots caused the tears, and USPS has switched over to packing them manually, the city said in an Oct. 7 news release. If the four ballot cards and return envelope are intact, voters can still send them in for processing.” (10/10/26)
