At least three people died and others were believed missing after flooding in a rural community in Arizona, officials said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, crews spent Saturday making preparations for an unnamed weather system that is forecast to approach that state’s coast as a hurricane early next week.
In Arizona, the manager of Gila county’s division of emergency management, Carl Melford, told local news outlet KPHO that two of the people who died were found in a vehicle, and a third person was found elsewhere after flooding Friday in Globe, a city of about 7,250 people about 88 miles (142km) east of Phoenix.
“I grew up here, and I don’t recognize the town that I grew up in right now,” he said.
Searchers looked for people missing all night, and more help arrived on Saturday to continue the search, city officials said on Facebook. They urged people to stay away from the historic downtown of the former mining town because of compromised buildings and hazardous chemicals and debris, including propane tanks swept away in the flood waters.
In South Carolina, the governor, Henry McMaster, urged residents on Saturday afternoon to closely monitor the weather and stay alert as potential bad weather approaches the state.
Also on Saturday, North Carolina’s governor, Josh Stein, declared a state of emergency in advance of the system that is being identified by the National Hurricane Center in Miami as Tropical Depression Nine. A year ago on Saturday, Hurricane Helene devastated parts of South Carolina and North Carolina.
The system on Saturday afternoon was located about 120 miles (190km) south-south-west of the central Bahamas. Forecasters urged people in the Bahamas and along the south-eastern coast of the US to pay close attention to the storm.
“What we learn every time is we never know where they are going to go,” McMaster said during a Saturday afternoon news conference to discuss the storm. “This storm is deadly serious. Not just serious. Deadly serious.”
At least 36 people have been killed and more than 50 injured in a stampede at a rally for a popular actor and politician in India.
The health minister in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Ma Subramanian, told the Associated Press late on Saturday that the victims, including eight children, were dead by the time they arrived at hospital.
The injured were in a stable condition, he added.
The rally was being addressed by Tamil actor Vijay, who is campaigning for election, Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, MK Stalin, said.
Vijay, one of Tamil cinema’s most bankable actors for three decades, has drawn large crowds to his public meetings since launching his political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, in 2024, which has targeted both the state ruling party DMK and prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party. He is campaigning ahead of state elections that are to be held in early 2026.
The 51-year-old said on X that his “heart is shattered” at the tragedy, adding: “I extend my deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of my dear brothers and sisters who lost their lives in Karur.”
Videos from local media show thousands of people surrounding a large campaign vehicle on top of which Vijay is seen standing and speaking.
During the rally, visuals showed Vijay throwing water bottles from the top of the vehicle to fainting supporters and calling for police help when the crowd became uncontrollable.
Modi said the incident was “deeply saddening”.
“My thoughts are with the families who have lost their loved ones. Wishing strength to them in this difficult time,” he said in a statement on social media.
Stampedes are relatively common in India when large crowds gather. In January, at least 30 people were killed as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival, the world’s largest religious gathering.
In July last year, 121 people were killed in the northern Uttar Pradesh state during a Hindu religious gathering.
And 11 fans were crushed to death this June in Bengaluru during celebrations for the local team’s first Indian Premier League title.
It is also not the first time Vijay’s rallies have been the subject of safety concerns. At least six deaths were reported by media following the first meeting of his political party when it was launched in October last year.
Despite police-imposed restrictions, including limits on convoy size and venue changes, the sheer scale of public turnout has repeatedly overwhelmed local infrastructure.
Federal authorities in Texas have arrested a man for allegedly threatening to shoot people at a pro-LGBTQ+ parade, to avenge the murder of Charlie Kirk.
According to court documents viewed by the Guardian, on 18 September, the FBI’s field office in Dallas was notified by Abilene, Texas, police about online threats from a local resident.
The resident, identified as Joshua Cole, allegedly used a Facebook account under the name “Jay Dubya” where he “threatened to commit a shooting” at a Pride parade in Abilene on 20 September.
“Fk their parade, I say we lock and load and pay them back for taking out Charlie Kirk,” Cole allegedly wrote, referring to the rightwing political activist, in one comment.
Kirk was shot to death on 10 September at Utah Valley University (UVU).
Citing investigators’ interviews with people close to the suspect in the case, Utah prosecutors have alleged Tyler Robinson killed Kirk after becoming sick of what he perceived to be Kirk’s “hatred”. Investigators reported being told by his family that Robinson had become “more pro-gay and trans rights oriented” in the year prior to Kirk’s killing.
Another comment Cole allegedly posted about the Abilene Pride parade read: “Theres only like 30 of em we can send a clear message to the rest of them.” Invoking an insult used to demean LGBTQ+ people, Cole also allegedly wrote: “come on bro let’s go hunting fairies.”
In a sworn affidavit, FBI special agent Sam Venuti wrote that investigators confirmed the “Jay Dubya” account belonged to Cole.
Venuti said that he had attempted to contact Cole at his place of work, where he had been employed for the past year. But the employer said that Cole had “just quit” and had “stormed out of the facility in anger”, Venuti said.
Co-workers reportedly described him as a “hot head”, according to Venuti’s affidavit.
Not long after, local police, with Venuti present, conducted a traffic stop on Cole.
When the agent told Cole that he wanted “to talk to him about his online activity”, Venuti wrote that “Cole then sighed and his body posture indicated that [he] knew the reason for our discussion”.
Venuti’s affidavit added that Cole “did not appear surprised”.
Cole was then detained. According to the FBI, Cole waived his rights against self-incrimination and – during questioning – reportedly admitted to owning a firearm, to operating the “Jay Dubya” Facebook account and to making the threatening posts.
The affidavit states that Cole reportedly agreed that “a reasonable person could interpret his comments as a threat”. He also said he did “not believe that the gay pride event should be allowed” though denied “that he was going to take action or shoot parade participants”.
Venuti concluded in the affidavit that Cole’s “threats were not conditional”.
“The threats were specific,” Venuti wrote. “The threats were also specific to a particular set of victims: people participating in the gay pride parade.”
Based on the evidence, the FBI agent wrote, he believed that there was probable cause to arrest Cole for violating a federal law that prohibits threatening communications.
After being jailed, Cole appeared briefly at a preliminary hearing, where a judge ordered him to remain in custody pending further proceedings.
An attorney listed for Cole did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On 26 September, the Abilene Pride Alliance issued a public statement about the incident.
“We want to reassure our community that the safety of everyone at Pride has always been, and will continue to be our top priority,” they wrote. “The swift action and continued diligence of [authorities] reflect their commitment to protecting our city and ensuring that Pride remains a safe, inclusive and celebratory space for all.”
The Trump administration – which has threatened to crack down on leftwing groups who opposed Kirk’s views – did not announce and has not commented publicly on Cole’s arrest.
Donald Trump said on Saturday he is deploying troops to Portland, Oregon, “authorizing Full Force, if necessary”, ignoring pleas from local officials and the state’s congressional delegation, who suggested that the president was misinformed or lying about the nature and scale of a single, small protest outside one federal immigration enforcement office.
Trump made the announcement on social media, using references to antifascists and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). He claimed that the deployment was necessary “to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our (immigration and customs enforcement) Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists”.
The White House did not provide details in connection with Trump’s announcement, including a timeline for the deployment or what troops would be involved.
Portland’s mayor, Keith Wilson, said at a hastily assembled news conference on Friday night that the city had become aware of “a sudden influx of federal agents in our city. We did not ask for them to come. They are here without clear precedent or purpose.”
“The President has sent agents here to create chaos and riots in Portland, to induce a reaction, to induce protests, to induce conflicts. His goal is to make Portland look like what he’s been describing it as,” Oregon’s junior senator, Jeff Merkley said. “He wants to induce a violent exchange. Let us not grant him that wish. Let us be the force of orderly, peaceful protest.”
The senator also drew attention to video evidence from the local newspaper, the Oregonian, which showed federal agents using force against a small number of protesters outside the Ice facility, who remained peaceful.
Although a spokesperson for the Oregon national guard told the Oregonian that no official request for troops had been made yet, convoys of dozens of federal agents, in marked and unmarked SUVs, were seen on Friday entering a federal building downtown and an Ice field office in a residential neighborhood that has been the scene of regular protests by dozens of protesters.
“The President of the United States is directing his self-proclaimed ‘Secretary of War’ to unleash militarized federal forces in an American city he disagrees with,” Representative Maxine Dexter wrote in a social media statement on Saturday, referring in part to the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth. “This is an egregious abuse of power and a betrayal of our most basic American values. Authoritarians rely on fear to divide us. Portland will not give them that.”
Both of Oregon’s US senators and three of its House representatives had in recent days strongly rejected Trump’s claims about mass anarchy in the city as a fiction intended to justify the unnecessary deployment of federal troops as part of an “authoritarian” crackdown.
Ron Wyden, the state’s senior Democratic senator, told reporters on Friday: “It’s important to recognize that the president’s argument is a fable – it does not resemble the truth.”
“If he watches a TV show in the morning and he see Portland mentioned, he says it’s a terrible place,” Wyden added.
During an Oval Office event on Thursday to announce that the administration intends to investigate and disrupt what it claims is “organized political violence” funded by leftwing groups, Trump made several wild claims about Portland, which was a center of racial justice protests in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. But life has long since returned to normal, and barriers around the federal courthouse and police headquarters downtown have been removed.
The president, however, apparently deceived by video of a handful of protesters gathered outside the Ice facility in a south-west Portland neighborhood broadcast by conservative outlets, insisted that the city has been in non-stop “anarchy” since 2020 and is barely livable.
“Portland is, I don’t know how anybody lives there, it’s amazing. But it’s anarchy out there,” Trump said. The president then claimed, falsely, that most of the city’s retail stores had closed, due to arson attacks, and “the few shops that are open” were covered in plywood.
Describing the small number of protesters who have gathered outside an Ice facility that has been illegally used for detentions in a residential neighborhood, Trump claimed, without evidence: “These are professional agitators, these are bad people and they’re paid a lot of money by rich people.
“But we’re going to get out there and we’re gonna do a pretty big number on those people in Portland that are doing that.”
Representative Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat, said on Friday: “This proclaimed ‘war on Antifa’ is completely a fallacy. Antifa is an ideology, it is not a group, and so we’re extremely concerned with what he’s going to try to do with that pronouncement.”
“Donald Trump does not care about safety. If he cared about safety he would not have released 1,600 convicted insurrectionists into the streets. He cares about control and authoritarianism,” she added, referring to Trump’s clemency for those who carried out the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. “Portland does not need the military. We do not want them, we do not need them, we do not welcome them to come here under his orders.”
Trump, a Republican, has sent military troops to the Democratic-controlled cities of Los Angeles and Washington DC so far in his second presidency. He has discussed doing the same in Memphis and New Orleans, which are also Democratic strongholds.
Prince Harry has suggested that people are seeking to sabotage his reconciliation with King Charles as he hit back at “invention fed” media reports on the pair’s recent meeting.
Harry met the king for the first time in almost two years at Clarence House in London on 10 September.
The Sun reported on Saturday that the meeting was “distinctly formal”, claiming that Harry joked he felt more like an “official visitor” rather than a member of the royal family.
The newspaper also cited sources close to Harry which denied he said he felt like an “official visitor”. A spokesperson for the prince went further, describing the quotes attributed to Harry as “pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son”.
The spokesperson did not specify who the information might have come from.
The Sun said Harry had confirmed parts of its report, telling the Guardian he “was given full right of reply yesterday in advance of publication and opted not to give a response to the Sun’s carefully sourced account of the meeting”.
Harry’s spokesperson also corrected part of the Sun’s report about gifts that had been exchanged between the king and him.
The Sun had initially said a framed photograph of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s family was exchanged.
But Harry’s spokesperson denied the claim, saying: “While we would have preferred such details to remain private, for the sake of clarity we can confirm that a framed photograph was handed over, however the image did not contain the duke and duchess.”
The duke carried out several charity events in Nottingham and London during his recent four-day visit to the UK this month.
The private tea between Harry and Charles, which lasted 54 minutes, came after the Duke of Sussex told the BBC in May he would “love a reconciliation” with his family.
Harry attended the Invictus reception at the Gherkin in London after the meeting. Asked how his father was during the event, he replied: “Yes, he’s great, thank you.”
The pair’s last engagement together took place in February 2024, soon after the king’s cancer diagnosis last year.
Harry, Meghan and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, now live in California. The last known meeting between Charles and his grandchildren was at the late Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee in June 2022.
Vladimir Putin will expand his war in Ukraine by attacking another European country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has predicted, and accused Russia of recent drone incursions that he said were an attempt to test Nato’s defences.
Speaking in Kyivafter his meeting with Donald Trump at the UN in New York, the Ukrainian president said Russia was preparing for a bigger conflict. “Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine. He will open up some other direction. Nobody knows where. He wants that,” he said.
Zelenskyy suggested EU governments were struggling to deal with this new and dangerous threat. Earlier this month, Ukraine spotted 92 drones flying towards Poland in a “choreographed” way. It intercepted most of them. Nineteen crossed into Polish territory, where the Poles shot four down.
“I am not comparing our forces. We are at war and they [Poland] are not, “he said. Zelenskyy said representatives from several unnamed countries would travel to Ukraine to receive “practical training” in how to repel Russian aerial attacks. “We are ready to share our experience,” he added.
Zelenskyy remarks follow what he said were “very nice” talks with Trump on the sidelines of the UN general assembly. After the meeting, the US president said he believed Ukraine could win back all the territory it has lost since 2022, with the support of Europe and Nato.
Trump also said Russia’s economy was in big trouble and described its military as a “paper tiger”. Asked to explain this apparent warmer tone towards Ukraine, Zelenskyy said he had briefed Trump about the realities on the battlefield. He told him Russia’s advances were often fleeting: “It’s not success. It’s temporary presence”.
The US president now had greater “faith” in Ukraine and has discovered that Russia treated him and everyone else with “disrespect”, Zelenskyy said. He declined to comment on reports that he had asked the White House for US Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking Moscow, saying: “It’s a sensitive issue”.
In recent months Kyiv has carried out a series of successful strikes against Russian oil refineries using domestically produced long-range drones. Zelenskyy said that if the Kremlin tried to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again this winter its own capital will experience retaliatory blackouts.
A Scottish Labour MSP has been suspended from the party over an allegation of inappropriate conduct.
Foysol Choudhury, who has served as an MSP for Lothian since 2021, will sit as an independent while the party carries out an investigation.
A Labour spokesperson said the party “takes all complaints seriously”. “They are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate action is taken,” they added.
It is understood that Choudhury was “administratively suspended” after the allegation.
Last month the Scottish Labour MSP Colin Smyth was suspended, arrested and charged over the possession of indecent images. The week after Smyth’s suspension was announced, he was also charged over allegations a secret camera was placed in toilets inside the Scottish parliament – which he denies.
The two MSPs’ suspensions are not believed to be linked. The Guardian has contacted Choudhury for a comment.
Following Choudhury’s suspension, the SNP MP Kirsty Blackman called on the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, to “urgently come clean on the reasons why yet another Labour party MSP has been suspended”.
“The public deserve full transparency,” she said. “Whatever the explanation, with yet another scandal on the eve of their party conference, there’s no doubt the Labour party is in crisis.”
The Scottish Conservative deputy leader, Rachael Hamilton, said Choudhury’s suspension showed “Labour are in complete chaos on the eve of their conference”.
The Tory MSP said: “Confidence in Sir Keir Starmer is gone after a year of broken promises and U-turns, the digital ID scheme has faced instant backlash, Anas Sarwar is engaging in bizarre attacks on independent experts, and now Scottish Labour have had to suspend another MSP.”
Hamilton added that Labour should be “as transparent as possible about what’s happened”.
Choudhury is chair of the Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council. He was also one of the founding directors of the annual multicultural festival Edinburgh Mela, where he serves as vice-chair.
RJ May signed court papers to change his plea a few days after a hearing during which prosecutors laid out how they would present their evidence in May’s trial in October. May, who does not have a law degree, is acting as his own attorney.
The Republican, who resigned earlier this year, is accused of using “joebidennnn69” to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts on the Kik social media network for about five days in spring 2024, according to court documents that graphically detailed the videos. Joe Biden, a Democrat, was in the final days of his presidency at the time.
May, 38, is pleading guilty to five counts and faces five to 20 years in prison on each charge. He will have to register as a sex offender and could be fined up to $250,000, according to his plea agreement.
May is scheduled to be in federal court on Monday to officially change his plea. He has been in jail since June after a judge refused bond following his arrest.
May acted as his own attorney at a hearing that included prosecutors showing charts explaining in stark, factual ways what was on each video May is charged with distributing.
During the hearing, May made arguments to the judge to throw out the warrant used to search his home, laptop and mobile devices. The judge had not ruled on the request before May approached prosecutors about pleading guilty on Wednesday.
May also was trying to keep out any evidence about whether he used a fake name to travel to Colombia three times. Prosecutors said they found videos on his laptop of him allegedly having sex with three people. A US homeland security agent testified the people appeared to be underage girls and were paid. US agents have not been able to locate the people.
Prosecutors said they linked May to uploading and downloading the child sexual abuse videos by showing he multitasked, emailing work files, making phone calls and performing web searches as part of his job as a political consultant as he was on Kik asking for “Bad moms. Bad dads. Bad pre teens.”
May was in his third term in the South Carolina house when he was arrested. After his election in 2020, he helped create the Freedom caucus, a group of the house’s most conservative members who say mainstream Republicans in the chamber aren’t the true conservative heart of their party. He also helped the campaigns of Republicans running against party members who were house incumbents.
“We as legislators have an obligation to insure that our children have no harm done to them,” May said in January 2024 on the state house floor during a debate on transgender care for minors.
The US state department is appointing a dedicated official to handle the case of Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old dual American-Palestinian citizen who has been held in an Israeli military prison for more than seven months.
Ibrahim is scheduled to meet with the new state department point person next week, marking an escalation in diplomatic efforts surrounding the Florida teenager’s imprisonment at the Ofer military prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The development comes as Ibrahim’s family has intensified its campaign for the boy’s release. Last week, relatives joined other families of Americans killed or detained by Israeli forces or settlers in a series of high-profile meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
That trip included sit-downs with more than a dozen members of Congress, as well as a press conference with the representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington state and the families of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, Sayfollah Musallet and Tawfic Ajaq, all of whom were killed by in the West Bank in the last two years. They were accompanied by the parents of Rachel Corrie, the American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003. The US government has not independently investigated any of these deaths, deferring instead to Israel’s own inquiries.
The Guardian first reported that Ibrahim was arrested in February at age 15 from his family’s home in the West Bank over allegations of rock throwing. The Guardian first mentioned Ibrahim’s imprisonment after reporting on Musallet, his cousin, who was allegedly beaten to death by Israeli settlers on the family’s farm in July.
The teenager has lost significant weight during his detention and at one point had contracted scabies. His family said they have been unable to maintain regular contact with him.
The Guardian has reached out to Israel’s prison service, foreign ministry and military for comment. Military court documents reviewed by the Guardian show Israeli authorities accuse Ibrahim of throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles in at least two separate incidents.
The state department said in a statement that it provides appropriate consular assistance to all citizens detained abroad, but that it would not comment further given “privacy and other considerations”.
The case has drawn attention from Florida lawmakers, including Kathy Castor, who has publicly called for his release. More than 100 civil rights and faith-based organizations in the US also signed a letter demanding his release and US government intervention.
Özden Bennett, the sister of 26-year-old Eygi, who was killed by an Israeli sniper last year while attending a protest against settlement expansion in the West Bank, grew emotional when speaking of Ibrahim while in Washington. “He feels like my little brother,” she said in a meeting with Virginia representative Jim McGovern. “I can’t do anything for my sister but we can help him”.
In a meeting with senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, she called on them to travel to the Ofer prison to demand his release, invoking Van Hollen’s visit to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Ábrego García, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
Van Hollen and Merkley met with Ibrahim’s father during their Middle East delegation trip earlier this month, their offices confirmed.
Merkley said in a statement to the Guardian that he was “heartbroken” to hear about Ibrahim’s imprisonment. “He deserves humane treatment and a fair trial,” he added. “My colleagues and I call on Secretary of State Rubio and the Netanyahu government to uphold Ibrahim’s basic human rights and dignity.”
Unidentified drones flew over Danish military sites including its biggest base during Friday night, the latest in a slew of sightings officials have called a “hybrid attack” and hinted at possible Russian involvement.
Drones were spotted at several military sites, a Danish military spokesperson told Agence France-Presse, refusing to provide other details.
Police said one to two drones were observed on Friday at about 8.15 pm (7.15pm local time) near and over Karup airbase, the country’s biggest base that houses all of the armed forces’ helicopters, airspace surveillance, flight school and support functions.
Karup is also home to parts of the defence command, according to the military’s website.
A police spokesperson, Simon Skelkjaer, said police could not comment on where the drones came from, adding: “We didn’t take them down.”
Police were cooperating with the military in their investigation, he said.
The Karup base shares its runways with the Midtjylland civilian airport, which was briefly closed though no flights were affected as none were scheduled at that hour, Skelkjaer said.
Mysterious drone observations across the Scandinavian country since Monday have prompted the closure of several airports.
Drone reports shut Oslo airport in Norway for several hours earlier in the week, after drone incursions in Polish and Romanian territory and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said on Thursday that “over recent days, Denmark has been the victim of hybrid attacks”.
Investigators have so far failed to identify those responsible, but the Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said on Thursday the flights appeared to be “the work of a professional actor”.
Frederiksen has pointed the finger at Russia: “There is one main country that poses a threat to Europe’s security, and it is Russia.”
Moscow said on Thursday it “firmly rejects” any suggestion it was involved in the Danish incidents. Its embassy in Copenhagen called them “a staged provocation” in a post on social media.
The Danish justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said earlier this week the aim of the attacks was “to spread fear, create division and frighten us”.
The drone flights began just days after Denmark announced it would acquire long-range precision weapons for the first time, as Russia would pose a threat “for years to come”.
Hummelgaard said Copenhagen would also acquire new enhanced capabilities to detect and neutralise drones.
Defence ministers from 10 EU countries agreed on Friday to make a “drone wall” a priority for the bloc. The EU defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said Europe needed to learn from Ukraine and swiftly build anti-drone defences.
“We need to move fast,” Kubilius told AFP. “And we need to move, taking all the lessons from Ukraine and making this drone wall together with Ukraine.”
Copenhagen will host an EU summit gathering heads of government on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Danish government said it had accepted Sweden’s offer of its anti-drone technology to ensure the meeting could go ahead without disruption.