PARIS — Shops and other businesses in Paris on Friday were boarding up windows amid fears of fresh street violence, as France braced for a third consecutive weekend of protests that coincide with Halloween celebrations. The demonstrations come in an increasingly febrile political climate, with presidential elections just six months away and far-right leader Marine Le Pen leading opinion polls. President Emmanuel Macron this week said it was "not normal" for France to be in such a state of "turmoil" so close to a presidential election. Around 70,000 security personnel will be deployed on Saturday, matching the number mobilised a week ago, as authorities sought to prevent a repeat of the October 17 unrest when thousands of businesses were damaged or looted. An aide to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said street violence on a scale "comparable" to the unrest two weeks ago was expected, when images of clashes, looted shops and public buildings set ablaze were broadcast around the world. "There are concerns about acts of vandalism and attempted looting," the aide said. A police source pointed
PARIS — Shops and other businesses in Paris on Friday were boarding up windows amid fears of fresh street violence, as France braced for a third consecutive weekend of protests that coincide with Halloween celebrations. The demonstrations come in an increasingly febrile political climate, with presidential elections just six months away and far-right leader Marine Le Pen leading opinion polls. President Emmanuel Macron this week said it was "not normal" for France to be in such a state of "turmoil" so close to a presidential election. Around 70,000 security personnel will be deployed on Saturday, matching the number mobilised a week ago, as authorities sought to prevent a repeat of the October 17 unrest when thousands of businesses were damaged or looted. An aide to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said street violence on a scale "comparable" to the unrest two weeks ago was expected, when images of clashes, looted shops and public buildings set ablaze were broadcast around the world. "There are concerns about acts of vandalism and attempted looting," the aide said. A police source pointed
Ce vendredi 30 octobre, à Rome, Milan, Turin, ou encore Palerme, des étudiants et travailleurs italiens défilent dans la rue depuis quelques heures. Selon les organisateurs, ils seraient 100 000 à réclamer plus de moyens pour l'école et davantage de pouvoir d'achat avec une forte présence policière destinée à prévenir d'éventuels heurts. Ils dénoncent également l'augmentation des dépenses de défense.
Les évacuations d'habitants et la distribution d'aide alimentaire ont eu lieu ce vendredi 30 octobre à Olechky, ville sous occupation russe dans le sud de l'Ukraine. Une information confirmée par la Russie et par Kiev, alors qu'un cessez-le-feu humanitaire est en vigueur depuis plus de trois jours.
Le journal Novaïa Gazeta a annoncé ce vendredi 30 octobre sa fermeture. Ce bastion de la presse indépendante depuis 30 ans en Russie, qui enquêtait sur la corruption, les violences du pouvoir et les violations des droits humains, abandonne face à la pression des autorités russes. La rédaction du journal était harcelée par le pouvoir depuis plusieurs mois.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host his G20 counterparts, including Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, for talks on Friday that are expected to be fractious, with wars in Ukraine and Iran and surging energy prices fanning discord.
The foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, taking place just days before crucial US midterm elections, will set the stage for a December G20 leaders’ summit in Miami at President Donald Trump’s Doral resort.
Few breakthroughs are expected this week from the Group of 20 economies — which include China, India, Russia, Japan, Germany and France — as officials face divisions over Moscow’s war on Ukraine and fallout from conflict with Iran.
Russia has been shunned by most of the West after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Lavrov himself remains under international sanctions.
Rubio’s encounter with Lavrov — whose presence adds an additional layer of tension — will be closely watched as Washington pursues diplomacy on Ukraine while seeking Moscow’s cooperation on reining in fuel prices, a key campaign issue in the midterms.
“The G20 is no longer really a forum where foreign ministers can reach agreement on a statement,” a diplomatic source said.
The source added that the US G20 presidency intends for Miami’s summit to serve “more as a demonstration of American power — and of US commitments to growth, deregulation, trade and business — rather than as a summit with grand ambitions on substantive issues.”
Instead of a final declaration, the source expects a chair summary drafted by the United States to be published from this week’s meeting.
The Trump administration, which is set to hand the rotating G20 leadership to Britain, sees the platform as having strayed from its core mission.
Washington has pledged to return the grouping to its goal of driving economic growth, arguing that security and economic prosperity are “inextricably linked.”
“Conversations in Atlanta will provide an opportunity to discuss energy and supply chain challenges as well as identify ways to collectively address the impact of geopolitical tensions on economic security,” a US State Department official said.
They stressed the importance of energy access — necessary for tech like artificial intelligence — and flagged a “shared resolve to confront urgent crises and keep critical sea lanes open to commerce without threats or tolls.”
“This is the last test case the G20 has, at least under the US G20 presidency, until Miami,” Alisha Chhangani of the Atlantic Council told AFP. Its outcomes will affect how the December summit shapes up.
She expects Washington will seek to argue that security shocks are also economic shocks.
It will likely push for agreement on what “freedom of navigation” means within and beyond Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil and gas transit, she said.
But this could face objections from China, which dissented against wording on free navigation in Hormuz and worldwide at an earlier gathering of finance ministers.
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi will not be in Atlanta, and is instead sending his deputy, the US State Department said.
Meanwhile, the possibility of further escalation in the Middle East is mounting, with Israel threatening to strike Iran and Trump signalling he could attack after Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Lavrov attendance
In Atlanta, Rubio is also due to cross paths with Lavrov, who has already reached Atlanta according to Russian state media.
It comes ahead of fresh negotiations between Moscow, Kyiv and Washington in November.
The appearance of Lavrov, who plans to argue against international sanctions at the gathering, will likely frustrate European ministers, Chhangani said.
It is not surprising, however, as Washington has welcomed Russian officials to this year’s G20 events — while excluding member South Africa — and Trump has invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Miami in December.
Trump has eased some sanctions on Moscow recently while touting a deal for Russia to sell diesel as prices soared, squeezing Americans.
The diplomatic source stressed that Russia’s G20 presence “in no way legitimizes its actions.”
All eyes will also be on US engagement with Brazil, whose foreign minister will be in attendance, after Washington granted entry to Flavio Bolsonaro following his defeat in Sunday’s presidential election.
US President Donald Trump is scrapping two of his last midterm election rallies, his Republican Party said Thursday, as the 80-year-old leader lashed out at a reporter who asked if he was “sick of travelling”.
“You’re sick to ask that question. You are sick,” Trump told the reporter after returning to Washington from a campaign trip to South Carolina.
“I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape, you look like hell.”
Trump told reporters he did not “feel like I have to go to Kansas,” a Midwestern state where Senator Roger Marshall, a fellow Republican, is in an unexpectedly competitive race with Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton.
“He is doing very well,” Trump said of Marshall.
“We are going to have a strong Tuesday night.”
Later on Thursday, the Republican National Committee said in a statement that it would also cancel a planned rally in Iowa, home to several competitive congressional races.
Instead of the events in Kansas and Iowa, Trump will hold a “large number” of virtual “telerallies” in a series of states, the Republican National Committee said.
The canceled in-person rallies were set for Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, and Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday.
Republicans are fighting to keep control of Congress in the November 3 midterms. Trump has urged the party to “pretend I’m on the ballot” to maximise turnout despite his poor approval ratings.
“With Republicans in a strong position in Kansas and Iowa, previously planned in-person rallies in those states will no longer take place as scheduled,” the RNC statement said.
The president is still expected to travel to rallies in several states before Tuesday’s election. Trump’s final election rally is now set to be in Florida on Friday.
Despite being the oldest elected president in US history, Trump has kept up a gruelling schedule of near-daily rallies throughout October to help Republicans in the midterms.
Since October 1, Trump has hosted 25 rallies in 19 states, often speaking for his party in rural areas of Republican-friendly states. Tuesday’s midterm elections will determine whether Republicans retain narrow control of the US Senate and House of Representatives.
MAGA Inc, a campaign funding group aligned with Trump, said on Thursday it would host a series of “tele-rallies” with the president in at least 19 states, including Kansas and Iowa, before Election Day.
Trump has noted that his recent series of more than hour-long campaign speeches has been challenging. Sounding hoarse in Mississippi on Monday, Trump said, “God didn’t make your vocal cords to do a rally every day.”
On Thursday, after campaigning for Senator Darline Graham in South Carolina, Trump ridiculed a Reuters reporter who asked how he felt after weeks of rallies and whether he was sick of travelling.
“You’ve been following me for two weeks,” Trump said before boarding his motorcade back to the White House.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Air pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago in September alone, according to a scientific study. The same month, about 57.8 million people were inhaling unhealthy to hazardous air, said the report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank. "Worsening air quality due to forest and land fires in Indonesia pushed the estimated death toll to 3,560 cases in September 2026, a twofold increase from the August estimate," said a CREA statement. The study estimated the number of deaths brought about by short-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution, which are deaths occurring within days of exposure. Most occurred on Indonesia's part of Borneo island as well as on Java and Sumatra islands and the country's east. The researchers also looked at non-fire pollution from urban and industrial emissions, and found it had caused a further 1,750 deaths in September for a total of 5,310 in the country of around 278 million people.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Air pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago in September alone, according to a scientific study. The same month, about 57.8 million people were inhaling unhealthy to hazardous air, said the report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank. "Worsening air quality due to forest and land fires in Indonesia pushed the estimated death toll to 3,560 cases in September 2026, a twofold increase from the August estimate," said a CREA statement. The study estimated the number of deaths brought about by short-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution, which are deaths occurring within days of exposure. Most occurred on Indonesia's part of Borneo island as well as on Java and Sumatra islands and the country's east. The researchers also looked at non-fire pollution from urban and industrial emissions, and found it had caused a further 1,750 deaths in September for a total of 5,310 in the country of around 278 million people.
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.
The company — the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes — said investigations had “uncovered additional points of breach”, contrary to initial findings that suggested the hack involved a single compromised laptop.
“This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it,” Binance wrote on X.
The firm earlier posted a series of sometimes contradictory messages, insisting that “user funds are completely safe” but also saying it would “cover all losses.”
The company confirmed on its X account for Latin America that “the total estimated impact is around $6.3 billion.”
That is four times the amount impacted in the biggest-ever cyberattack of its kind to date: $1.5 billion taken in February last year from the Bybit platform.
Binance warned the figure “may continue to increase as our teams work closely with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets.”
It said around $3 billion in affected assets had been frozen.
The 2023 Bybit heist was attributed at the time to a group of hackers affiliated with North Korea called TraderTraitor.
Blockchain investigation firm TRM Labs said Thursday it had “high confidence” that the Binance hack was also orchestrated by TraderTraitor, citing “robust on and off-chain intelligence.”
“Several features of this attack match earlier North Korea-linked heists,” TRM said.
TraderTraitor is believed to be part of Lazarus Group – which gained notoriety in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures as revenge for “The Interview,” a film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Fund freeze
At about 0900 GMT Friday, Binance said it was on track to resume withdrawals in 45 hours, after announcing earlier that all deposits and withdrawals had been “temporarily suspended”.
“Deposits remain unaffected,” it said.
The company had said on X that initial investigation suggested the hack involved a compromised laptop belonging to a “DevOps engineer,” allowing the unauthorised party to access a “service container” and execute unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
“We have found no evidence of any private key leaks from wallets,” it said, promising to share a detailed technical analysis once investigations were complete.
But it said later that “subsequent investigation has uncovered additional points of breach.”
Paolo Ardoino, the boss of Tether — a company that issues a cryptocurrency known as USDT — said his firm froze about $1.6 billion “related to a potential Binance exchange hack.”
Jeremy Allaire, who runs cryptocurrency platform Circle, said his company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC.
USDT and USDC are both “stablecoins” or digital currencies whose value is linked to a traditional currency, the US dollar.
The US Department of Justice and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Crypto prices tumble
For several hours before Binance confirmed the attack, industry observers said hackers had managed to reach the platform.
The prices of most major cryptocurrencies fell on news of the cyberattack, except for the stablecoins, which by definition can only fluctuate within tight margins.
Bitcoin and Ethereum plunged nearly 5 per cent and nearly 6pc respectively on the news. BNB, native to Binance, tumbled nearly 10pc.
The attack on Binance comes as many observers express worries that the ever-expanding capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) models could compromise cryptography and IT security protocols.
Binance has secure asset fund
Binance runs a secure asset fund for users, which is a reserve held entirely in bitcoin that is intended to protect user assets in cases of security breaches, according to its website.
“It’s becoming very hard to counter hacks as AI can find vulnerabilities faster than you can fix them,” said Bernardo Brites, CEO of Trace Finance, a payments and stablecoin infrastructure company.
“My view is that users will move away from smaller and medium-sized exchanges, (it is) becoming too risky to park your money somewhere that couldn’t cover a hack of meaningful size.”
World Liberty Financial, a crypto company linked to US President Donald Trump and his family, said on Thursday it had worked with cryptocurrency custodian BitGo to freeze funds stolen in what it described as a Binance hack.
Binance’s Yi said $27 million in stablecoins and about $2 million worth of World Liberty tokens had been frozen.
Crypto firm Ripple also froze roughly $200 million in funds, Yi said. Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, said the company was closely monitoring reports of a potential exploit involving Binance and was freezing affected funds and coordinating with relevant parties.
Incident adds to string of crypto thefts
The incident adds to a string of crypto thefts. Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM Labs.
In September, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget said roughly $350 million in crypto had been stolen from its platform, underscoring the industry’s vulnerability to hackers.
Authorities have warned that organised crime groups are increasingly using cryptocurrencies to move funds across borders outside the traditional financial system.
Binance.US, a separate cryptocurrency exchange, said it was not affected by the security incident.
Coinbase said it was unaffected and was monitoring the situation.
In an unrelated incident earlier on Thursday, prediction market operator Polymarket temporarily halted trading after a security incident involving a third-party provider. It later resumed trading and said it would fully reimburse affected traders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp finished ahead of the opposition but remained well short of a majority, final results from general election showed on Friday, setting the stage for tough coalition talks or potentially another vote.
Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and far-right parties won 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, with his Likud party remaining the largest faction with 27 seats.
The opposition bloc, led by centrist Gadi Eisenkot, secured 48 seats.
The results from the Central Elections Committee also cemented the emergence as potential kingmakers of the Arab party groupings Raam and the Joint List, with the two winning a combined 19 seats.
The fragmented outcome sets the stage for difficult negotiations to form a government that could last weeks, with no single bloc able to reach the 61-seat threshold needed and the prospect of another election remaining if talks fail.
The final tally came after Netanyahu’s camp spent Thursday amplifying unproven allegations that Arab-Israeli groups received foreign funding to influence the vote, accusations rejected by both Arab-majority lists and Qatar.
Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service said it was investigating suspected irregularities, but stressed the probe was not intended to “cast aspersions or place blame on an entire sector that went out to vote in a democratic and lawful manner”.
The electoral commission also sought to calm tensions, with its acting director general Dean Livne saying any suggestion of widespread issues was “entirely groundless”.
Political earthquake
The controversy centred on allegations that Raam received money from Qatar, the energy-rich Gulf powerbroker that has channels to Hamas, to finance vote-buying operations.
“The Raamgate scandal is a political earthquake. Israel’s elections have been stolen!” Netanyahu’s Likud party alleged on Thursday.
Raam leader Mansour Abbas denied any wrongdoing and welcomed an investigation, while the Joint List accused Netanyahu and his allies of conducting a “campaign of incitement” out of fear of Arab voters’ growing political influence.
Government officials have so far provided no evidence to back the allegations.
Opposition figures accused Netanyahu of attempting to undermine confidence in the results after failing to secure a governing majority.
“He is trying to challenge the election results,” left-wing candidate Yair Golan said.
Eisenkot said he was briefed by the Shin Bet and the election committee, adding it was “too early to understand what happened, and whether anything happened at all”.
But he continued: “It’s already clear that Likud and Netanyahu have embarked on a coordinated, organised campaign seeking to delegitimise the results of the election.”
Netanyahu himself has long been under the cloud of allegations related to Qatar after the arrests last year of two of his aides for allegedly receiving payments from the Gulf state.
Qatar called the latest accusations “ridiculous and dangerous”.
Kingmakers under pressure
Yousef Jabareen, head of the Joint List, told AFP that he is willing to cooperate with the opposition to bring down Netanyahu but without joining it in a government.
Netanyahu had tried during the voting to raise allegations of fraud, saying that Arab parties were caught with envelopes of cash, and Likud peddled the accusations throughout Thursday.
Police said they arrested three suspects but the election commission called it an isolated local case.
Interpretou Shakespeare no teatro, passou pela televisão britânica. Mais foi com o professor Charles Xavier em “X-Men” e o capitão Jean-Luc Picard em “Star Trek” que ganhou o seu lugar entre as estrelas. O ator britânico de formação shakespeariana Patrick Stewart, que se tornou uma megaestrela de Hollywood com os papéis nas sagas “Star Trek” e “X-Men”, morreu em casa, em Los Angeles. Tinha 86 anos. A morte, na quarta-feira, surgiu após uma “breve e comovente batalha” com a doença de Alzheimer e demência com corpos de Lewy, segundo um comunicado oficial nas suas redes sociais. “A sua voz sonora
O fumo proveniente dos incêndios florestais na Indonésia deteriorou drasticamente a qualidade do ar em Singapura nas últimas semanas, atingindo os piores níveis em mais de uma década e levando ao cancelamento de atividades ao ar livre. No sábado, mais de 80 corredores transformaram as galerias do centro comercial Marina Square em pistas de corrida improvisadas, percorrendo dois pisos e dando voltas junto às montras antes da abertura das lojas ao público. As regras eram rigorosas. “É proibido correr a toda a velocidade, ultrapassar ou gritar”, avisou Eugene Beh, de 52 anos, fundador do Singapore Runners Club, perante cerca de
L'acteur britannique Patrick Stewart, devenu une star à Hollywood notamment grâce à ses rôles dans les franchises Star Trek où il incarnait le capitaine Jean-Luc Picard, et X-Men où il campait le professeur Charles Xavier, est décédé, selon un communiqué publié jeudi 29 octobre 2026. Il était âgé de 86 ans.
WASHINGTON — 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 U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of key midterm polls next week. Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter, the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said in a statement, beating market expectations. "The contributors to the increase in real GDP in the third quarter were increases in investment, consumer spending, and government spending that were partly offset by a decrease in exports," the BEA said in a statement. The U.S. Federal Reserve's preferred gauge for inflation — the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index — rose by 3.6 percent year-on-year in September, an increase from the previous month. Trump's handling of the economy is a key issue for voters heading into midterm elections on Tuesday, where Democrats are seeking to wrest control of both houses of Congress from the president's Republican Party. The U.S.-Israe
WASHINGTON — 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 U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of key midterm polls next week. Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter, the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said in a statement, beating market expectations. "The contributors to the increase in real GDP in the third quarter were increases in investment, consumer spending, and government spending that were partly offset by a decrease in exports," the BEA said in a statement. The U.S. Federal Reserve's preferred gauge for inflation — the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index — rose by 3.6 percent year-on-year in September, an increase from the previous month. Trump's handling of the economy is a key issue for voters heading into midterm elections on Tuesday, where Democrats are seeking to wrest control of both houses of Congress from the president's Republican Party. The U.S.-Israe
WASHINGTON — Senior Democrats demanded Thursday that U.S. 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. In a letter dated Wednesday and first obtained by Politico, congressmen Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia said questions submitted by Trump and White House aides — and the chatbots' answers — constituted presidential records that must be preserved under federal law. They requested a closed-door briefing by November 11 covering the president's use of AI, security safeguards and whether outside companies could access sensitive conversations. "If the American President is relying on the policy advice of a Musk-designed, Hitler-friendly chatbot with a predilection for child pornography in order to carry out his official duties, Americans have a right to know," they wrote. The language alludes to past controversies over Grok generating antisemitic statements and sexualized images of children. The letter follows reports that Trump spent hours
WASHINGTON — Senior Democrats demanded Thursday that U.S. 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. In a letter dated Wednesday and first obtained by Politico, congressmen Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia said questions submitted by Trump and White House aides — and the chatbots' answers — constituted presidential records that must be preserved under federal law. They requested a closed-door briefing by November 11 covering the president's use of AI, security safeguards and whether outside companies could access sensitive conversations. "If the American President is relying on the policy advice of a Musk-designed, Hitler-friendly chatbot with a predilection for child pornography in order to carry out his official duties, Americans have a right to know," they wrote. The language alludes to past controversies over Grok generating antisemitic statements and sexualized images of children. The letter follows reports that Trump spent hours
A líder sindical e ícone dos direitos civis, cujo trabalho mudou a vida dos trabalhadores migrantes, morreu, anunciou a família na quarta-feira. Tinha 96 anos. “Yes, we can? A Dolores chegou lá primeiro”, disse Obama. Morreu Dolores Huerta, pioneira do sindicalismo nos Estados Unidos, aos 96 anos Durante quase quatro décadas, Huerta foi vice-presidente da United Farm Workers, o sindicato que fundou com Cesar Chavez, organizando greves e paralisações que melhoraram as condições de trabalho dos milhões de homens e mulheres que trabalham nos campos norte-americanos. “É com profunda tristeza que anunciamos que a nossa querida mãe, Dolores Huerta, faleceu
BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union said Thursday it does not want any more national-level bans on social media before a pan-European law is approved, as it blocked draft rules put forward by Austria. Under EU law, member states must notify the European Commission to ensure their bills do not break the bloc's rules. Austria wanted to ban children under 14 from social media, but the EU said no. "The commission has decided to postpone for 12 months any draft national laws overlapping with the future harmonized rules," EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said. The European Commission last month proposed to ban children under 13 from social media, and permit only limited, supervised access until the age of 15. The EU believes allowing countries to move ahead with national laws would divide the bloc, creating varying age-limits among member states. Brussels also fears EU countries will not rush to pass the bloc-wide law if they have their own country-level rules in place. "We need to now focus on the negotiations of the EU Kids Act and to ensure an effective enforcement of our rules," Regnier said
BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union said Thursday it does not want any more national-level bans on social media before a pan-European law is approved, as it blocked draft rules put forward by Austria. Under EU law, member states must notify the European Commission to ensure their bills do not break the bloc's rules. Austria wanted to ban children under 14 from social media, but the EU said no. "The commission has decided to postpone for 12 months any draft national laws overlapping with the future harmonized rules," EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said. The European Commission last month proposed to ban children under 13 from social media, and permit only limited, supervised access until the age of 15. The EU believes allowing countries to move ahead with national laws would divide the bloc, creating varying age-limits among member states. Brussels also fears EU countries will not rush to pass the bloc-wide law if they have their own country-level rules in place. "We need to now focus on the negotiations of the EU Kids Act and to ensure an effective enforcement of our rules," Regnier said
The United States has fired a top military planner, US media reported, with some outlets saying the dismissal was due to the officer allegedly leaking classified information.
Army Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia was removed from his role as head of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Staff, US media reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
CBS and Fox both reported that Sylvia’s dismissal was related to leaks, with the former citing a Pentagon official as saying the general failed three polygraphs about sharing classified information with the media.
A spokesperson for the Joint Staff, a top Pentagon body that handles planning and other issues, initially issued a statement that confirmed Sylvia’s departure and wished him well but later withdrew it, saying: “Upon further review, we determined that the statement did not appropriately reflect the full circumstances.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell then said in a post on X that the Defense Department “has zero tolerance for the intentional, unauthorised disclosure of classified information” and took “necessary personnel action to protect sensitive information.”
Parnell did not identify Sylvia by name and said “no further comment will be made regarding the individual or the circumstances of this action”.
“This matter, along with others, have been referred to the Justice Department for potential further legal action,” he added.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since returning to office early last year, Trump has overseen a purge of top military personnel, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, general Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February 2025.
Renewed Iran strikes?
Other senior officers pushed out include the heads of the US Army, Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the US Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to Nato, and three top military lawyers.
Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicisation of the traditionally neutral US military.
Hegseth said last month that the US had slashed the number of its generals and admirals by 20 per cent, in a move he said was aimed at “accountability”. He suggested the cuts targeted officers who failed to get on board with his efforts to ensure the military is focused on war-fighting rather than the “woke” policies of previous administrations, describing the reductions as an “accomplishment”.
The reported sacking of Sylvia comes as Trump is believed to be weighing fresh strikes against Iran after US midterm elections next Tuesday.
“We may do another little Epic Fury,” Trump said last week, referring to US-Israeli attacks on Tehran in February that triggered the war. He did not give any indication on timing.
Neither the US nor Iran has engaged in major attacks on land-based targets since early September, settling instead into a pattern of strikes on commercial ships.
No reason was given for Sylvia’s reported departure. His previous roles included leading the 101st Airborne Division — the US army’s air assault division — and heading a unit in Iraq.
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