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Oct 2, 2026 - World

U.S. consular services and the Australian embassy have closed in Brazil due to security concerns

Oct 2, 2026 - World

The Trump administration suspended all U.S. consular services in Brazil on Friday in what one political economist feared was a ploy to “interfere in the country’s democratic elections this weekend.”The State Department told Reuters that the suspension of all consular services across the South American nation was due to “security concerns,” but did not provide additional details, including what those concerns were or when consular services would be restored.“Consular Services in the US Embassy and Consulates in Brazil will be suspended starting Friday, October 2 due to security concerns," the State Department said in a statement, according to Reuters. "US citizens seeking emergency assistance during this time should not come to the Embassy, the Consulates, or other US diplomatic facilities."The timing of the move was suspect, argued David Adler, co-general coordinator of Progressive International and former advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Brazil’s first-round presidential election is on Sunday, pitting Flávio Bolsonaro — a far-right politician supported by President Donald Trump — against incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a progressive Workers' Party member and frequent Trump critic.“Holy s---. In an UNPRECEDENTED move, the United States suspends ALL embassy services in all American consulates in Brazil… with no justification whatsoever,” Adler wrote in a social media post on X. “Yet another fear-stoking effort to interfere in the country’s democratic elections this weekend.”Brazilian political commentator Julio Freiress — whose commentary was cited by the Brazilian Supreme Court earlier this year — expressed similar concerns.“Trump has already started interfering in the Brazilian election,” Freiress wrote, according to an automatic translation by X’s Grok chatbot from its original Portuguese. “There's no reason whatsoever for the United States to suspend embassy services. There's already a whiff of interference in the air.”

Oct 2, 2026 - World

The Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight said in a live video call that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save passengers after being stabbed by his co-pilot.

Oct 2, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump is trying to rewrite his own predictions about how long the war with Iran would last, but CNN's Daniel Dale subjected his revised public claims to a fact check.Seven months after launching the war on the last day of February, the 80-year-old president claimed Thursday that his much-repeated "four to six weeks" estimate referred only to eliminating Iran's nuclear threat, not to the entire conflict."I stated, numerous times, that it would take 4-6 weeks to get rid of THE IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT, and I did it in one night! The rest of the time is just to make sure it stays that way," Trump wrote on Truth Social.In an interview with TIME Magazine published the same day, a reporter told Trump that "most people heard you say four to six weeks." Trump blamed the media: "No, I think the press fed it to them."But CNN's review found that Trump and his former press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, repeatedly described the weeks-long timeline as applying to the war as a whole.On March 2, less than three days into the fighting, Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper, "I always thought it would be four weeks. And we're a little ahead of schedule." Later that day, he said in a speech, "We projected four to five weeks."At a March 10 briefing, Leavitt said the "initial timeline was about four to six weeks to achieve the full objectives" of the operation. She listed goals that went well beyond nuclear weapons, including destroying Iran's missiles and navy and weakening its proxy groups.Trump repeated the estimate twice at a March 26 Cabinet meeting. "We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission, and we're way ahead of schedule," he said.On March 31, Trump went further. He told reporters the U.S. could be done "within two weeks, maybe; two weeks, maybe three." Asked to clarify, he added: "We'll leave."As recently as April 8, Leavitt said Trump "stated this would be a four-to-six-week military operation to dismantle the military threat" posed by Iran.CNN asked the White House for any example of Trump limiting his timeline to the nuclear threat. The White House offered none and instead sent back a statement insisting Trump was "right" without addressing the request.Many experts also dispute Trump's separate claim that he eliminated Iran's nuclear threat in a single night.Trump has been distancing himself from the estimates for months. In April, he accused Democrats of claiming he "promised 6 weeks to defeat Iran.""He can quibble about whether he made a promise or offered an estimate," Dale concluded. "But the record shows the “six weeks” figure came from his own mouth."

Oct 2, 2026 - World

Experts sceptical flydubai co-pilot’s only motivation was to end his own life and say key question is means of radicalisationAt about 9.30 on Wednesday morning local time, Tali Manes was taking her six-year-old daughter, Nina, to the toilet on the regular flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when she heard a series of heavy blows against the cockpit door.Manes, an Israeli bank executive, immediately told a flight attendant seated nearby that something was wrong. When he did not react, she shouted at him: “Something is happening in there!” Seconds later, the man “simply went to the [cockpit] door and opened it”, Manes told Israel’s Channel 12 TV. Continue reading...