September 19, 2026

03 World

Fourteen-year-old boy charged over alleged plot targeting London mosques | Islamophobia News– www.aljazeera.com

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A 14-year-old boy arrested by British police has been charged with a crime related to “terrorism” over an alleged plot to target local mosques.

London’s Metropolitan Police revealed the charge against the unnamed boy on Wednesday, saying he was suspected of preparing to carry out an “act of terrorism” in connection with “extreme right-wing” ideology.

“This is a very ⁠serious terrorism charge ⁠against a young boy and likely to be highly concerning to the public and ⁠the local community,” said Helen Flanagan, head of ⁠counterterrorism policing in London.

Police said they did not believe the ‌case pointed to a wider threat, but added that they had contacted the mosques, located in south London’s Sutton area, and offered advice and support.

“We know this will be particularly concerning to the Muslim community and we are working closely with the venues affected to ensure they are kept updated and to provide advice, support and reassurance, and this will continue,” said Flanagan.

U.K. counterterrorism police take over former MP Ann Widdecombe death probe – National– globalnews.ca

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An investigation into the suspected killing of former British politician Ann Widdecombe is now being led by U.K. counterterrorism police, investigators said, days after announcing there was no evidence to suggest it was an act of terror.

A 28-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of murder after Widdecombe, 78, was found dead inside her home in an isolated village in Devon, southwest England, on Thursday, was re-arrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, Counter Terrorism Policing South East said in an update Monday, according to The Associated Press.

The suspect was first arrested on Saturday in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, two days after Widdecombe’s body was discovered. Rotherham is more than 320 kilometres from the former MP’s rural home.

The suspect has not been named because he has not been charged.

China ups arrests of Christians, demands cult of Xi– www.americanthinker.com

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The Chinese communist government clearly sees the first of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” as a threat.

As reported Sunday in The Telegraph, Chinese authorities have intensified a nationwide campaign against independent Christian congregations, arresting thousands of worshippers and forcing many of China’s “house churches” further underground.

Police have raided churches across the country, detained pastors and lay leaders, and expanded surveillance of believers who refuse to worship in state-approved churches.

Several Chinese Christians who fled the country told The Telegraph that believers increasingly feel they are being treated as enemies of the state simply because their highest allegiance is to God rather than to the Chinese Communist Party.

One Christian told the newspaper that “there is no freedom left,” while another described living under constant surveillance and fearing arrest for attending ordinary worship services. Others said authorities have pressured Christians to join government-controlled churches whose preaching is closely monitored by the Communist Party.

Cuba plunged into third nationwide blackout in two weeks as power grid collapses– www.euronews.com

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Cuba suffered another blackout of the National Electric System, or SEN, on Tuesday, leaving the entire island country without power, officials said, in what was the third such incident in less than two weeks as a US oil embargo stresses the island’s grid.

Since January, when US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any nation that supplies or sells oil to the island, fuel has been scarce across Cuba, exacerbating the island’s continuing financial and economic crises.

Public transportation has largely been halted, and officials have cancelled tens of thousands of surgeries.

Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it needs, and a solution for fuel imports is not yet in sight.

The state-owned Electric Union reported that a problem with a generating unit in the eastern province of Holguín caused “a sudden frequency change”, resulting in the SEN blackout around midday.

Donald Trump ‘rushed into situation room’ over plans for huge new Iran offensive– www.mirror.co.uk

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Trump is reported to be planning a major new offensive on Iran(Image: Graeme Sloan – Pool via CNP/Shutterstock)

Donald Trump is reportedly planning a massive new offensive in Iran after being rushed to a situation room meeting.

The US President said the fragile ceasefire with Iran was over last week as he lashed out at its leaders – calling them “scum” – which has been followed by missile strikes from both sides in the region over the past few days.

A naval blockade was imposed on Iran today and airstrikes have intensified in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killed at least seven troops and wounded more than 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said.

US military will be out of Iraq by end of September, Iraqi prime minister and Pentagon say– www.washingtontimes.com

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. military will leave Iraq by the end of September, American and Iraqi officials said Tuesday, following a 23-year presence that started with the 2003 invasion against Saddam Hussein and ended with much smaller operations against the Islamic State group.

President Donald Trump, standing alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House, said “we don’t think we need the military there anymore” and noted Iraq’s growing relationships with oil companies.

“The relationship is a whole big relationship where we don’t need the military,” Trump said. “We’re there to help them. We’re there to protect them if need be. But we don’t think that’s going to be necessary.”

Speaking through an interpreter, al-Zaidi said “U.S. forces will be out of Iraq” by Sept. 30, “while U.S. companies will be inside Iraq.”

Publishers sue Google over alleged use of books to train AI models– www.france24.com

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Multiple book publishers sued Google on Tuesday for allegedly stealing copyrighted content, using it to train artificial intelligence (AI) models and then generating content that “directly” competes with the original authors’ work.

“The scale and speed at which Gemini can create books and compete with human writers is unprecedented,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit, which requests class action status, was filed in New York by Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, author Scott Turow and his publishing company S.C.R.I.B.E.

They allege that “Google secretly copied millions of works” that were provided to Google Books and other services for “limited purposes” and then used that content to train Gemini, its AI model.

Furthermore, they claim the content generated by Gemini directly competes with the authors who wrote the original work.

UK To Announce Midnight Social Media Curfew For Teenagers– www.ndtv.com

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Britain will introduce a default overnight curfew on social media apps for 16- and 17-year-olds, the government said, adding new restrictions for older teenagers to its plan to introduce a sweeping ban on social media for under-16s.

Affected users would be blocked from using apps between midnight and 6 a.m. unless they change the default setting. Features designed to keep users scrolling for longer, including videos that automatically play one after another, would also be switched off by default.

The new measures aim to prevent a cliff edge for those who will gain access to social media when they turn 16, and offer some protection from the negative effects of late-night scrolling.

“These measures will be crucial in helping young people get the sleep they need, focus on school and college, and spend more quality time with family and friends,” technology minister Liz Kendall said in a statement.

Senate Democrats Block Funding For Trump’s Iran War– www.politicususa.com

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The writing was on the wall last month when only 4 Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee voted against the NDAA. The defense funding bill was doomed to fail as Republicans put forward legislation that called for $1.15 trillion for the Department of Defense and to deepen military and intelligence ties to Israel.

Both of those points were non-starters for Senate Democrats.

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The final vote was 50-46. Every Democrat who was present voted no. Republicans Jim Justice of West Virginia and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Democrats John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Alex Padilla of California did not vote.

Reuters reported:

Democrats are concerned that authorizing a huge Pentagon budget would be seen as approval of the war on Iran that began with strikes by the U.S. and Israel on February 28. They also object to the Trump administration’s push to increase military spending to a total of $1.5 trillion this year, including several hundred million dollars he has requested in a separate spending bill, even as social programs for Americans are being cut.

The procedural vote on the NDAA that failed in the Senate marks a major turning point in support for Israel and defense funding.

WW3 fears erupt as NATO member issues warning over Russia ‘planning attacks’ | World | News– www.express.co.uk

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Lithuania has warned Russia could plan attacks on European countries, also members of NATO, by targeting energy and transport infrastructures. The President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, suggested security measures in the Baltic countries and Poland should be increased as a precaution.

Mr Nauseda mentioned his concerns during an interview with BNS quoted by Lithuania’s news outlet LRT and said: “We have received such signals from our intelligence services. They do not identify a specific place or time because that is simply impossible to determine. The other side may not even have completed its planning process, and we may only know about the planning itself or the intended objective.”

The Lithuanian President also said: “So yes, I cannot deny that we have such information and that it concerns kinetic operations – not on a large scale, but targeted kinetic operations that are very likely to be directed against critical infrastructure.”

He did not provide evidence to support the assessment or identify potential targets, LRT said.

Starmer says his political journey is over at his last question session as UK leader– abcnews.com

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LONDON — Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he was leaving the United Kingdom “in better shape than I found it” as he fielded questions, criticism and even a bit of praise from lawmakers in the House of Commons for the last time on Wednesday.

Starmer, who leaves office next week, bid farewell to the boisterous weekly Prime Minister’s Questions sessions where he has traded barbs with opposition politicians and defended his government’s record. On Monday, he will step down as prime minister after losing the support of his Labour Party, handing over power to a new Labour leader, Andy Burnham.

“Every prime minister knows when they take up the torch that the day will come when they have to pass it on,” said Starmer, who has spent six years as leader of the Labour Party and two as prime minister.

“This is the end of my political journey,” he said, though he plans to remain a backbench lawmaker for now.

U.S. Confirms Latest Iran Strikes Target Its Ability to Bomb Ships– www.breitbart.com

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U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the arm of the Pentagon responsible for the Middle East, confirmed on Wednesday morning that it had engaged in a new round of air strikes against Iranian military missile launch sites after hours of similar targeted attacks on Tuesday.

CENTCOM explained that the objective of the new operations against Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is to erode Iran’s ability to bomb its neighbors and attack random civilian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a tactic that Tehran returned to with gusto during funeral events for late dictator Ali Khamenei in early June. Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM, explained in a statement this week that the Iranian terrorist state had escalated its attacks on civilians in an effort to disrupt global commerce in the Strait of Hormuz, necessitating a response.

“Over the past seven days, Iran has intentionally targeted civilians across the region by attacking seven commercial ships resulting in nearly a dozen civilian crew members killed, missing, or injured,” Admiral Cooper detailed in a statement on Tuesday. “Iranian forces have also launched dozens of missiles and drones toward neighboring Gulf countries. U.S. forces are holding Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression that continues to endanger innocent lives.”

US resumes daylight strikes on Iran as tensions escalate over Strait of Hormuz– www.euronews.com

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US military has resumed its air strikes against Iran in broad daylight on Wednesday, as Washington said it was intensifying its campaign aimed at limiting Tehran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

According to US Central Command (CENTCOM), a new 90-minute wave of precision strikes against Iranian targets on Wednesday morning targeted coastal defence systems as well as cruise missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island.

CENTCOM said the strikes were intended to further reduce Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels passing through the strategic waterway.

The operation marks a further escalation in the US military campaign against Iran, following Tehran’s repeated attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf.

Iran had struck at least seven commercial vessels over the past week, according to CENTCOM.

Majority Of Sailors Killed In Hormuz Attacks Were Indians, Shows Data– www.ndtv.com

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India supplies around 12 per cent of the global seafaring workforce, but Indian crew members have borne a far greater share of the recent dangers at sea.

Take the example of seafarers killed during the shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. According to an analysis by NDTV Datafy, the majority of seafarers killed in attacks on commercial ships appear to be Indians.

Indians accounted for seven of the 16 seafarers – nearly 44 per cent – killed in attacks on commercial vessels during the Strait of Hormuz crisis between March 1 and July 14, 2026.

Lithuania warns Russia could be planning ‘targeted’ attacks on critical infrastructure – Europe live | Ukraine– www.theguardian.com

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Meanwhile, Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nausėda warned that Russia could be planning attacks on infrastructure, with security around energy and transport sites to be tightened as a precaution.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda delivers a doorstep statement during the 2026 Nato Ankara Summit in Ankara, Turkey. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Speaking with BNS news agency, Nausėda appeared to confirm growing concerns, reported in the Guardian too, that Russia could be looking to escalate against one of the Baltic countries or Poland.

He said that Lithuanian intelligence services picked up “signals” of a potential provocation, but “they do not identify a specific place or time, because that is simply impossible to determine,” LRT reported.

“I cannot deny that we have such information and that it concerns kinetic operations – not on a large scale, but targeted kinetic operations that are very likely to be directed against critical infrastructure.”

France licenses missile production in Ukraine — RT World News– www.rt.com

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Kiev will be allowed to manufacture cruise missiles, glide bombs, and interceptors on its soil, French President Emmanuel Macron has said

France will grant Ukraine licenses to produce missiles and bombs on its soil, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday.

Speaking at a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ summit in Paris, Macron said the agreements would allow Ukraine to manufacture Aster 30 interceptor missiles, AASM glide bombs and SCALP-EG cruise missiles under license.

“We have agreed on licensing agreements for new capabilities,” he told reporters, adding that the move “will allow us to produce these capabilities much more quickly with our Ukrainian partners and on Ukrainian soil.”

Inside NATO’s eastern flank as Russia’s shadow war intensifies– www.washingtontimes.com

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Along NATO’s eastern flank, from Finland to Poland, allied nations are bracing for what officials call Russia’s “next phase” — a hybrid war of drones, cyberattacks, and sabotage that rarely makes headlines but never stops.

Washington Times Defense and National Security Correspondent John T. Seward traveled the border to see it firsthand.

A casualty calls out for help near NATO’s border. His unit moves fast with combat medical care, putting him on a stretcher and getting him out of harm’s way. It’s only a training exercise, but the scenario is a real-world risk.

This is Poland’s border with Belarus, Russia’s closest regional partner. All along the eastern edge of NATO, troops are rehearsing for the possibility that Russia’s war in Ukraine ignites a broader conflict. And while Washington debates what NATO is worth.

Venezuela’s acting president thanks Russia for humanitarian assistance – Emergencies– tass.com

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CARACAS, July 15. /TASS/. Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodriguez has thanked Russia for providing assistance after a devastating earthquake.

“I would like to personally thank Russia, other countries, and their ambassadors for offering Venezuela a helping hand during this difficult time, when many families have lost their loved ones,” Rodriguez said during a visit to a humanitarian aid collection and distribution center. She was accompanied by Russian Ambassador to Caracas Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov.

Rodriguez noted that Venezuelans left homeless by the earthquake were grateful to all countries providing assistance to the country.

Last week, two Russian Emergencies Ministry aircraft delivered over 35 metric tons of humanitarian aid to Venezuela, including food, tents, basic necessities, motor pumps, and medicines.