Voter turnout for Winnipeg's mayoral election reached approximately 38 per cent, according to an analysis of unofficial results by the Free Press. This participation rate varied significantly across the city's 15 wards, reflecting a gap in engagement between different residential areas: turnout was lowest in Point Douglas at 26 per cent and highest in River Heights-Fort Garry at 46 per cent.
Incumbent Scott Gillingham secured a second term, receiving 39.82 per cent of the vote. The remaining candidates included Kevin Klein with 20.71 per cent, Noah Redden with 19.84 per cent, and Mike Vogiatzakis with 9.66 per cent, out of a total field of 12 contenders. Official overall turnout figures for the municipal and school board elections have not yet been released by the city.
“We no longer want to work for war nor to pay for it,” José Nivoi of the Autonomous Collective of Port Workers (Coordinamento Autonomo Lavoratori Portuali, CALP) in Genoa said as actions kicked off. “Because the conditions we’re experiencing in Italy today, they’re the same conditions being experienced on five different continents.”
Ports must serve life, not destruction
The port workers’ actions are grounded in the Istanbul Declaration adopted earlier this year, which analyzes the impact of the growing arms transports on work in harbors worldwide. In the declaration and the interventions that followed, dockworkers outlined how this trend comes hand in hand with the erosion of working conditions, including the contractualization of work and aggressive austerity cuts.
Friday’s actions are supported by roughly 25 unions from Australia to the United States and Uruguay, and from India to Mexico. A notable cluster of ports is located across the Mediterranean, where the first day of action – held in February this year – was launched.
The dockworkers’ union ENEDEP led the strike call in Greece, receiving support from education workers and school children. Source: PAME International/Flickr
Over the past months, dockworkers from Italy, the Basque Country, Turkey, Greece, and Morocco were joined by others. The expanded list added organizations from Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
“Our message is clear: dockworkers don’t work for war,” the Moroccan Democratic Labor Organization (Organisation Démocratique du Travail, ODT) from Tangiers port said at a press conference in late October. “Ports must serve life, transporting food and medicines that sustain our communities. They must be places of cooperation between peoples, never instruments of destruction.”
No harbor for genocide
A notable emphasis throughout the day is dockworkers’ solidarity with Palestine, including expressions of support from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the Global Sumud Flotilla. “With over 90% of Israeli imports arriving by sea, ports around the world are the chokepoint of Israel’s apartheid economy,” BDS and other organizations wrote on social media. “On October 30, dockworkers will show that, together, we can break the chain supplying Israel’s genocide, apartheid and occupation.”
While the role of Mediterranean ports in fueling the genocide in Gaza has been more publicly exposed, the role of harbors in other regions remains perhaps less visible. That is precisely why the participation of dockworkers from Asia in the second international day of action is so significant.
“In the last year, India’s major ports have been conduits from Indian public and private sector companies exporting to Israel’s Elbit Systems factories in Yokneam and Ramat Hasharon,” BDS and others wrote. “These factories manufacture artillery, munitions and ammunitions that has been documented to have been used in the genocide in Gaza.”
“We firmly believe that support for Palestine should be channeled through our states, because today Israel enjoys a level of international impunity that allows it to carry out a genocide,” Nivoi said on Friday. “Therefore, we emphasize today that people must mobilize – not only in response to the rising cost of living, but above all to definitively liberate Palestine from Zionism.”
Dockworkers’ action converges into general strike in Italy
Italy and Genoa in particular have been a key node for building trade union solidarity with Palestine since 2023. Conscious of the links between growing militarization, imperialist drives around the world, and hardening austerity in Italy, CALP and the grassroots union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) also called for a convergence of local movements – leading to a new general strike.
According to early estimates, approximately 2 million people in Italy responded to this call, including many students and young people. Over the past weeks, as students in several European countries took to the streets, youth groups across Italy have also been demonstrating against cuts to essential services.
On Friday, these groups promptly responded to the general strike call. “The student-worker alliance is growing ever stronger: across the country, students and young people are mobilizing – through occupations, encampments, assemblies, and demonstrations – against the government, while also promoting the upcoming general strike,” Marta Collot from the left party Potere al Popolo emphasized ahead of the day of action.
“Labor can stop war”
While witnessing the continuity of dockworkers’ actions in one part of the world brings much inspiration, trade unionists involved in preparing the day also emphasized the significance of the initiative expanding. Not all organizations were in a position to launch a strike, but they still recognized the importance of sending an anti-militarist message from their docks.
In a comment for BreakThrough News, trade unionists from the Port of Vukovar, Croatia – mapped alongside unions taking part in the day of action – stressed the importance of dockworkers’ anti-war campaigning. Their point was concrete: wars fought elsewhere reshape livelihoods, shipping routes, and working conditions at home.
Dockworkers in Koper, Slovenia, were among those joining the dockworkers’ second international day of action. Source: SŽPD/Facebook
Yet the struggle is not only for dockworkers to fight, European trade unionists insist. As USB’s Francesco Staccioli pointed out in late October, the struggle against war remains a wider struggle for workers’ rights and social justice. Because of this, he emphasized, October 30 should be taken as a starting point to widen the scope of action further.
“Labor can stop war. It can stop the genocide of the Palestinian people. It can stop imperialist aggression,” he said.
The Government of Ontario has revised its fiscal projections, increasing the forecasted deficit for the 2026-2027 fiscal year to $16.9 billion, up from the previous estimate of $13.8 billion. This adjustment, detailed in the province's fall economic statement, marks the fourth time the administration has deferred its target for returning to a balanced budget.
Fiscal Timeline and Contingency Measures
The province has officially pushed the timeline for balancing its books to the 2029-2030 fiscal year. This follows a previous extension to 2028-2029 and earlier targets that had been repeatedly delayed since 2024. To manage immediate volatility, the Ministry of Finance has allocated an additional $3.8 billion to the provincial contingency fund, bringing the total to $4.9 billion; officials expect the majority of these funds to be utilized by the end of the current calendar year.
Operational Drivers and Economic Authority
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy cited external trade pressures as the primary driver for the widened deficit. Specifically, the province identifies U. S. tariffs impacting the automotive, steel, and manufacturing sectors, alongside global energy price fluctuations, as the mechanisms reducing projected revenues and increasing costs. Under its current administrative authority, the government is responding by matching federal tax breaks for capital investments and providing targeted funding to sectors affected by tariffs.
A domestic worker in Singapore has been sentenced to three years in prison for sexually abusing three young children under her care and transmitting obscene material of them to her husband. The case highlights the specific vulnerabilities of non-verbal children with disabilities and the mechanisms by which such abuse can remain undetected until external intervention occurs.
Eligibility for Care and the Breach of Trust
The central mechanism of the offence involved a position of trust within a private household, where the caregiver had direct, unsupervised access to the children. The victims included a one-year-old boy, a seven-year-old girl, and a four-year-old boy who is non-verbal due to autism. The court noted that the four-year-old was wholly dependent on the offender and unable to verbally communicate the acts of abuse, creating a significant barrier to immediate reporting from the victim's side.
District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz described the incident as a "profound betrayal of trust.” The 29-year-old Indonesian woman, who was employed in January 2026, admitted to two counts of ill-treating a child and one count of electronically transmitting obscene materials. She pleaded guilty before the court, with the sentencing handed down on October 30, 2026.
Rogers Communications will pay a $15 million administrative monetary penalty for misleading advertising of its wireless plans, following a decision by the Competition Tribunal. The tribunal found that Rogers' marketing for its "Infini” plans created a false impression of unlimited data access, despite a significant reduction in data speeds once users exceeded a specific volume threshold. The decision was announced this week, with detailed reasons expected to be published within ten business days.
Authority and procedural stage
The Canada Competition Bureau initiated the process by filing a complaint with the Competition Tribunal in December 2024. The Bureau alleged that Rogers' advertisements for plans launched in 2019 misrepresented the terms of service. While the plans were marketed as "unlimited,” the operational mechanism involved throttling data speeds to approximately 512 kilobits per second after a set limit was reached. The Bureau argued that this restriction was not sufficiently disclosed in a way that consumers could understand when making their purchasing decisions. The tribunal's order requires Rogers to pay the penalty, publish a corrective notice to consumers, and cover the Bureau's legal costs. Although the Bureau had initially sought a $135 million fine if refunds were deemed necessary, the tribunal settled on the $15 million penalty without ordering direct refunds to customers.
Operational mechanism and practical effect
The core issue lies in the discrepancy between the consumer-facing label of "unlimited” and the technical reality of the service. In telecommunications, "unlimited” plans typically still impose speed caps to manage network load. Rogers indicated that real data speeds for these unlimited tiers are usually listed in fine print or footnotes. The tribunal's ruling establishes that this disclosure method was insufficient to prevent consumer deception. For users, this means that while the formal plan description remained unchanged, the regulatory environment now explicitly categorizes this specific marketing approach as misleading. The practical effect is a shift in how telecommunications providers must present data limits: the label "unlimited” can no longer be used without a more prominent and clear explanation of the speed reduction thresholds and the significant drop in performance past those limits.
Ottawa has authorized a federal investment of up to $1.6 billion in Cohere, an Ontario-based artificial intelligence company. The decision, announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Mila research institute in Montreal, is framed by the government as a measure to secure Canada's digital sovereignty. Carney stated that the investment is intended to ensure that AI development, governance, and utility remain within Canadian control rather than being determined by external actors. This direct fiscal intervention marks a shift from previous policy frameworks that focused on broader ecosystem development to a specific, large-scale equity or quasi-equity commitment in a single corporate entity.
The authority for this expenditure lies with the federal cabinet, operating under the broader strategic plan presented in June by Evan Solomon, the Minister of Artificial Intelligence, a portfolio created in 2025. The plan identifies the creation of "Canadian champions” in the AI sector as a core objective, explicitly naming Cohere. This move follows a memorandum of understanding signed between Cohere and the government in the previous year, which established a pathway for the company to develop and deploy large language models within federal government systems. The new investment is distinct from that administrative agreement; it represents a direct capital injection rather than a procurement or partnership framework.
Cohere has confirmed that the funds will be allocated to advancing its model architecture, accelerating its production schedule, and securing long-term compute capacity. The company's leadership, including CEO Aidan Gomez, characterized the government's contribution as a "mark of confidence.” The investment is part of a broader funding round totaling up to $7 billion, which includes private capital from international and domestic entities such as the German conglomerate Schwarz Group, telecommunications provider Bell, investment firm Bullhound Capital, and technology supplier Nvidia.
India has achieved a substantial reduction in absolute poverty, lifting an estimated 496 million people out of poverty between 2011 and 2023. According to the World Bank's October 2024 India Poverty and Equity Brief, this trajectory represents one of the most rapid declines in poverty levels globally over the last twelve years.
However, the data reveals a sharp divergence between the reduction of absolute poverty and the distribution of wealth. While a vast number of citizens have moved above the poverty threshold, structural income inequality remains entrenched. The report highlights a significant gap in earning capacity: the median income of the top 10% of earners is nearly 13 times higher than that of the bottom 10%.
This disparity indicates that while the floor of economic survival has been raised for millions, the gains from economic growth are heavily concentrated at the top. The contrast between the scale of poverty alleviation and the persistence of a wide income gap suggests that the mechanisms driving the decline in poverty are not necessarily translating into a more equitable distribution of national income.
In Fort St. John, British Columbia, a city of approximately 20,000 residents located more than 400 kilometres northeast of Prince George, the local newspaper Alaska Highway News ceased publication in late 2023. By that time, it was the last of the region's long-running print newspapers to close, joining the Dawson Creek Mirror, the Chetwynd Echo, the Mackenzie Times, the Tumbler Ridge News, and the Fort Nelson News in a decade-long decline that reduced the region's professional news workforce to fewer than 10 journalists. The closure severed a continuous institutional link to local governance and community life that had existed, in various forms, since 1930.
The practical consequence of this shift is a measurable gap in the documented public record of municipal decisions, court proceedings, and community services. Naomi Larsen, former editor of the Chetwynd Echo, notes that since the paper's closure in January 2016, there is "literally no written history” of daily events in her community, ranging from council meetings to local cultural events. This absence creates a specific barrier for residents who rely on consistent, verified reporting to understand changes in local services, zoning, or civic administration. The region is now frequently characterized as a "news desert,” a designation reflecting the lack of consistent, locally rooted journalism rather than a general lack of information sources.
From Consolidation to Closure
The trajectory from dense local coverage to near-total absence was driven by corporate consolidation and subsequent withdrawal of resources. In the mid-20th century, the Alaska Highway News, founded in 1944 by Margaret and George Murray, operated as an independent outlet with a distinct editorial voice. The Murrays, who promoted the Peace region as a site for agricultural and resource development, established a paper that documented fine-grained community details, from hospital admissions to traffic infractions. Ma Murray, the co-founder, maintained a reputation for direct engagement with the community, accepting non-monetary payments for subscriptions and publishing editorials that defined the local character. Her legacy is preserved in the North Peace Museum and the Ma Murray Awards, an annual journalism prize named in her honour.
The Government of Odisha has approved 22 investment proposals totaling ₹3,855.38 crore, signaling a strategic effort to diversify the state's industrial landscape. While Odisha has traditionally relied on its metals and mining strengths, this latest round of clearances across 12 districts focuses on high-value sectors including aerospace, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and hospitality. The state estimates these projects will create 7,765 new jobs.
The approvals, granted during a State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Anu Garg, highlight a shift toward specialized manufacturing and services. The capital allocation is led by tourism and hospitality at ₹1,035.62 crore, followed closely by paper, packaging, and plastics at ₹1,029.91 crore, and biofuel initiatives at ₹680 crore.
In the energy transition space, the state is betting on compressed biogas (CBG) to enhance its green energy capacity. Three projects are set to add 29,700 tonnes of annual production. Leading this is Indian Oil Corporation Limited with a ₹360 crore investment across Anugola, Jajpur, and Sambalpur, supported by Kineta Global Limited (₹170 crore in Sundargada) and Sree Metaliks Bio Energy Limited (₹150 crore in Baleshwar).
India has formally linked its bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the 2028-29 term to a strategic focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and maritime security. During a high-level open debate on 'Emerging Technologies and Maritime Security,' India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, positioned the intersection of technology and ocean governance as a central pillar of New Delhi's international agenda.
The strategic shift reflects a recognition that the maritime domain is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Ambassador Parvathaneni highlighted that while AI, autonomous systems, and satellite-based surveillance provide unprecedented opportunities for maritime domain awareness and search-and-rescue operations, they simultaneously introduce systemic vulnerabilities. Specifically, the increase in digitalisation and automation has expanded the attack surface for cyber threats targeting ports, communication networks, and critical undersea infrastructure.
A critical point of India's intervention was the distribution of technological benefits. New Delhi warned against a widening digital divide, asserting that the proliferation of emerging technologies must not deepen existing disparities. The Ambassador emphasised that developing nations require not only access to technology but also the institutional capabilities and training necessary to secure their own maritime infrastructure and influence global technological governance.
Mumbai is witnessing a significant erosion of its historical atmospheric advantage. For decades, the city's coastal geography and strong sea breezes acted as a natural ventilation system, shielding the financial capital from the extreme smog levels typically associated with northern Indian cities like New Delhi. However, recent data suggests this systemic shield is failing.
According to an analysis of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, Mumbai's average daily air quality index (AQI) surged to 102 by October 27, more than double the September average of 45.4. This spike marks one of the sharpest post-monsoon deteriorations since 2019. Notably, this is only the second time in seven years that Mumbai's average October AQI has crossed the 100-threshold, a level officially classified as 'unhealthy' by Indian standards. Data from IQAir further underscores the severity, showing that concentrations of PM2.5-fine particulate matter capable of deep lung penetration-more than tripled during the September-to-October transition.
The current crisis reveals a convergence of meteorological anomalies and structural urban changes. Gufran Beig, founder of the SAFAR air-quality forecasting system, attributes the stagnation of pollutants to one of the strongest El Niño events on record, which has slowed the coastal winds that usually disperse emissions. This creates a trapping effect where locally generated pollutants linger over the metropolitan area.
Canada and the EU are laying out their vision for what a closer relationship looks like in an increasingly “dangerous and divided” where trade has become “weaponized.”
Canada and the EU are laying out their vision for what a closer relationship looks like in an increasingly “dangerous and divided” where trade has become “weaponized.”
At least 15 people, several of them children, died in a series of drone strikes that hit a camp for displaced civilians in Ethiopia's Amhara region, two sources involved in a rescue operation said on Friday.
It was not clear why the camp was targeted or who was behind the attack, but the strikes highlight continuing clashes in the area despite a lull in the heavy fighting that erupted last month between an alliance of rebels from northern Tigray region and the government in Addis Ababa.
"There were around five explosions. Then ... we started collecting bodies," a community representative involved in the burials told Reuters, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The representative said they helped bury 13 people at the camp, which is known as Jari 2 and is home to more than 1,700 people who fled previous violence.
Two of the injured later died at a hospital in Hayk, a town 17 km (10 miles) away.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A local official said they were aware of the incident and were helping get medical treatment to 36 people who had been injured.
A man who lost a family member described seeing a drone circling overhead on Wednesday and then returning on Thursday.
“Then finally it hit the camp … three times,” the relative told Reuters. “Their body parts were scattered everywhere. We collected and buried pieces of their body parts.”
A resident of Hayk who was helping provide shelter to survivors also said 15 people had been killed. "Those from the camp are now sheltering in a school," the resident said.
The dead included five children, according to the two sources involved in the rescue.
The relative of one of the victims said they had seen at least 10 injured children under the aged of five receiving treatment.
All three sources said there had been no fighting in the area when the strike took place, but members of the Amhara Fano National Movement, which is part of the rebel alliance spearheaded by fighters from Tigray, had been nearby.
Government troops have driven back the rebel alliance since their offensive was launched on 23 September.
Eritrea denies the accusation and says Addis Ababa's allegations of an invasion by Eritrean forces amounted to a "declaration of war".
Given the web of interconnected conflicts in the Horn of Africa, with neighbouring countries and powers further afield backing their respective proxies, experts have warned that war in Ethiopia could trigger a broader conflict in the region.
When medical student Jane* heard there was a medical event to help Jewish doctors across the UK move to Israel, she knew she had to find out whether they were promoting illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Constantly witnessing Israeli violence in the occupied territory, including the dozens who were killed this week alone, the activist and student was motivated by uncovering the truth.
The event, hosted by MedEx, took place in Camden on 25 October and was mainly organised by Israeli government officials. MedEx is also part of a series of organisations that help people "make Aliyah", a term used when Jewish people move to Israel.
"I wanted to see if it was still happening and also be able to report it and prevent its normalisation as much as possible," Jane, a member of Jewish Anti-Zionist Action, a UK protest group of pro-Palestinian Jews, told The New Arab.
Recalling the Great Israeli Real Estate event in June, where activists exposed the promotion of homes in illegal settlements, Jane wanted to see if it was still happening, as nothing concrete has come from the UK Charity Commission.
"That was my main motivation, to sort of prevent as much as I could."
The event encouraged conversation with clinics and recruiters and began the Israeli licensing process, while also promoting tax benefits should they decide to make the move.
"It's just the banality of people just happy to be there and be like, 'great, we're going to get to move to the homeland', and it's acting like there's not a massive, massive price being paid by a lot of people for it, like there's nothing happening under the surface," Jane said.
After witnessing heavy police presence on the way to the centre and being introduced to three rounds of security checks, including what synagogue she attends along with bag and body checks, Jane was welcomed with open arms.
The student received a promotional pack of materials from medical companies with clinics in the occupied West Bank, including Shivat Zion, which Declassified exposed for helping people move to illegal settlements and actively promoting it within the UK.
Jane was also handed a leaflet by Terem, an organisation promoting medical jobs in settlements, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit, and Modiin Illit in the West Bank and Katzrin in Syria's Golan Heights – which are illegal under international law.
Open positions include general and urgent care physicians, paediatricians and medical directors.
While Jane was surprised clinics in the occupied territories were still being promoted, she was also shocked by the lack of secrecy about it.
"It was so easy, there was nothing difficult about getting that information at all," Jane said. "There was nothing under the table about it. It was all just out there in the open."
Growing up Jewish in the UK, the activist was always raised with very strong values around justice as part of her Jewish beliefs, always disagreeing with Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
"In a lot of ways, being so pro-Palestine because I was always taught that if you see something wrong, you do something about it, that's the Jewish way."
Despite the UK government imposing sanctions on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, the medical student also noted that the UK government needs to be making a much more conscious effort to crackdown on these events and prevent the sale and promotion of illegal settlements from happening at all.
"These events really normalise illegal settlements, especially during this time of increased settler violence with no repercussions and in the current climate, that's just totally unacceptable because of the amount of death and injury we've been seeing done to Palestinians and their allies," Jane said.
Civilians in the Sudanese city of El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, are facing the threat of drone attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and an increase in arbitrary arrests by Sudanese army-affiliated forces amid escalating violence in the war-torn country, UN-appointed investigators have warned this week.
In its latest report, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said that, more than three years after the conflict broke out in April 2023, the war was becoming increasingly widespread and dangerous for civilians.
The latest warnings also highlight deteriorating humanitarian conditions in El Obeid, which had already been identified as being at risk of famine, alongside other parts of Sudan.
"Thousands have been arrested by SAF security cells, detained and tortured in unofficial locations and in El Obeid Central Prison, kept under appalling conditions,” said Mona Rishmawi, an expert member of the UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan.
“These practices must stop immediately.”
Roughly 30% of hospitals in El Obeid are currently functioning following RSF drone attacks, according to the UN report.
It added that the strikes had continued to kill and injure civilians in the city, while also targeting homes, schools, displacement sites, and electricity and water systems.
The report cited a drone attack on a market in Abyei earlier this month, reportedly carried out by forces aligned with the military government, which killed at least 80 people.
The UN also said it would investigate reports of Egyptian airstrikes on goldmining sites near the Sudan-Egypt border, which reportedly killed at least 72 miners.
The UN further highlighted an increase in detentions, with approximately 2,000 people reportedly being held at El Obeid Central Prison.
The report cited a former detainee who said people were being confined in a cell measuring roughly 2.5 metres by 2 metres.
UN investigators have warned that security actors affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have increased surveillance and are "targeted people engaged in humanitarian, human rights and peace work".
The latest findings come a year after the brutal RSF takeover of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, where more than 10,000 people were reportedly massacred by the paramilitary group over two days after it seized the city in October 2025, following an 18-month siege.
Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, another expert member of the UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, has renewed calls to extend the UN arms embargo to cover the whole of Sudan, as it is currently limited to Darfur.
"Sovereignty should not shield mass atrocity crimes, period," Ezeilo said.
"One year after the devastation of El Fasher, civilians in other parts of Sudan continue to pay the price of a conflict that is becoming increasingly destructive and difficult to escape."
She added: "In El Obeid, attacks on electricity networks, water facilities, hospitals, schools and displacement sites demonstrate how damage to critical civilian infrastructure can reverberate through entire communities long after an attack has occurred."
“The passage of time should not diminish attention to what has happened in El Fasher. On the contrary, it should remind us of the cost of impunity.”
Now in its fourth year, Sudan's war began in April 2023, when fighting broke out in Khartoum between the RSF and the Sudanese military before spreading across the country.
The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, according to conflict monitor ACLED, although other aid groups argue that the true death toll is likely to be higher.
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