Oct 20, 2026
MOMBASA, Kenya — A Kenyan court on Monday found starvation cult leader Paul Mackenzie and about 30 others guilty of murder over the deaths of 190 children and one adult in one of the world's worst cult-related disasters in recent history. Mackenzie and his co-accused will be given their sentence on November 6. He was arrested in 2023 after police received a tip-off, and weeks later authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola Forest near the coast in southeastern Kenya. Prosecutors say Mackenzie and his Good News International Church organised a Christian doomsday sect in which they ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death to go to heaven before the world ended. Mackenzie denied murder charges, saying he did not force the victims to starve, but the court rejected that argument. In total, more than 400 bodies have been recovered from the Shakahola Forest. Many were severely decomposed, with only 26 bodies able to be identified. Monday's judgment covered 191 deaths while investigations into the other deaths are ongoing. Families in court t
PARIS — France saw some of the worst unrest in years at the weekend as huge protests across the country over the cost of living and underfunded public services descended into riots and looting. Limoges town hall was torched and more than 3,000 shops were pillaged or damaged, according to the government, as violent groups clashed with police in cities across the country. While mayors of France's biggest cities demanded answers from the government on Monday over what they say was a lack of preparation, authorities rushed to set up support measures for impacted businesses and bolster security as calm returned to the streets. Here is the latest on the situation in France: What will the government do to quell the violence, compensate victims? Some 2,400 people were arrested during the weekend and police investigators are poring over online videos and images to track down looters. Partial curfews are being organised in some municipalities while the government has said it will increase police numbers on the ground, especially for next weekend if it sees renewed protests. It has not specified h
PARIS — France's central government asked some local authorities to impose curfews as it faced pressure over security failings on Monday after a weekend of riots and looting stemming from nationwide anti-government protests. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ruled out a blanket curfew in Paris but not a state of emergency. But he said it was more appropriate for now to apply partial and localised curfews, without providing details. "My determination to restore order is absolute," he told reporters. Ariel Weil, the Socialist mayor of central Paris, said on BFM TV he favoured a curfew. Marseille banned gatherings and demonstrations. French unions meanwhile called for a new round of strikes and rallies on November 5. The weekend of looting and violence between some protesters and police followed weeks of student demonstrations, rocking France six months ahead of its next presidential election and highlighting pressures from a weak economy and surging debt. Minister blames far left Lecornu blamed far-left groups for some of France's worst unrest in years. "There is, after all, a far-left move
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched new attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday, adding that Kyiv again received no early warning of the attack from partner countries that previously shared their intelligence. Zelenskyy is grappling with recent Washington moves benefiting Russian President Vladimir Putin, including waiving U.S. sanctions on Moscow and signing a deal to import diesel from Moscow. Moscow and Kyiv, meanwhile, were discussing the possible evacuation of the Russian-occupied front-line city of Oleshky in the southern Kherson region, where about 2,000 people have been cut off from food and medical supplies for months, according to a Ukrainian human rights official. Vital US supplies are running late, Zelenskyy says Zelenskyy said speed restrictions are still in place on Kyiv’s use of the military-grade version of U.S. company SpaceX’s satellite internet service. Full service was being restored at the end of last week, but Zelenskyy said Monday that the restrictions are still slowing U
ROME/BERLIN/WARSAW — Governments in Europe and Asia, including China, on Monday advised citizens travelling to France to avoid large crowds and exercise caution, warning of a deterioration in security conditions after thousands were arrested and shops looted in protests over the weekend. Demonstrations across France over high prices and declining public services erupted into riots on Saturday, with a town hall torched as violent groups clashed with police. In response, the foreign ministries of several European countries issued fresh travel warnings. Italy Italy said its citizens should register their presence in France on a website or an app to enable them to be located, as it warned them to avoid large crowds and exercise extreme caution. Germany The German foreign ministry said further riots in the coming days couldn't be ruled out and urged German nationals to follow instructions from local police. It warned citizens that they could face fines or claims for damages if they failed to leave unauthorised demonstrations when asked to do so. Czech Republic Czechs in France are advised to av
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday expressed uncertainty about the possibility of meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in China next month, saying he was not sure whether anyone had requested such a meeting. Trump made the remarks when asked by a reporter whether he expected to secure a meeting with Kim during his planned attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China, scheduled for November 18-19 in Shenzhen. "Oh, I don't know. I don't know," Trump said at the White House. "I'm not sure that anybody's asking for a meeting." The president nevertheless emphasized his personal ties with the North Korean leader. "I get along with him very well," Trump said. "But my relationship with Kim Jong-un is very good." In August, Trump said that he hoped to meet Kim later this year, adding to speculation that he might seek to rekindle his personal diplomacy with Kim that led to three bilateral in-person meetings: the first in Singapore in June 2018, the second in Hanoi in February 2019 and the third at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom. Last Monday,
WASHINGTON —U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he is open to participating in a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin and that it could be focused on denuclearization. "We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization," Trump told reporters outside the White House. "If President Xi wants to have it, I'd have it." Earlier Monday, the Kremlin said that Putin, Trump and Xi could hold a three-way meeting on the sidelines of next month's APEC summit in China and that a potential meeting had come up in talks.
CAIRO — Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck Yemeni government forces with ballistic missiles on Monday, killing at least 53 soldiers at a military camp in one of the deadliest attacks since a resurgence in fighting this summer, Yemeni military officials said. The attack wounded an additional 200 recruits at the military camp in the southern province of Shabwa, the provincial government there said. The rebels acknowledged targeting the camp. The fighting between the Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces is a widening front in the Iran war that began in February. The escalation shattered a 2022 ceasefire deal that largely stopped fighting in Yemen’s civil war. The Houthis have put their growing military capabilities on display on multiple fronts in recent weeks, repeatedly striking Saudi Arabia’s main international airport hundreds of miles (kilometers) away and seizing territory inside Yemen near a key shipping chokepoint. In a sign that the Houthi attacks are unsettling Saudi society, the kingdom on Monday canceled a global investment conference scheduled for next week
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday basked in Donald Trump's endorsement days before close-fought elections, airing a call in which the U.S. president predicted he would win and suggested they may again attack Iran together. A day after Trump publicly endorsed Netanyahu for the October 27 vote, Netanyahu put out a video of a telephone call in which the two right-wing leaders lavish praise on each other. "I think you're going to have a tremendous victory, actually," Trump can be heard saying on speakerphone. "You're the man I want by my side, Bibi," Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. Netanyahu — while reminding the famously loose-lipped president that they were on an open line — hailed Trump for joining Israel in attacking Iran in late February. "Donald, we have a job to finish," a beaming Netanyahu said. "We'll finish it together. We'll finish it, and no one else will do it." Netanyahu did not elaborate but again described Iran's clerical state, which remains in power nearly eight months after the joint attack, as "the greatest danger." Net
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department on Monday highlighted cooperation with South Korea and other partners on quantum technology, underscoring the importance of joint research, secure supply chains and international standards in the emerging strategic industry. The department's Bureau of Economic Affairs said in a post on X that Ambassador-at-Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy Adam Cassady and Brad Blakestad of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy led a U.S. delegation to the sixth Quantum Development Group (QDG) meeting held in South Korea. "Quantum will reshape how we secure communications, discover new medicines, and strengthen our economy. Who sets the rules matters," the department said. It said the U.S. delegation worked with trusted partners on research, supply chains and standards during the meeting, highlighting Washington's efforts to shape the global development of quantum technologies. "By investing in American ingenuity, the United States is making sure quantum breakthroughs strengthen our security, grow our economy, and create high-paying jobs at
PARIS — France announced partial curfews in Paris and other cities on Monday after weekend demonstrations over soaring prices degenerated into some of the worst street violence in recent years. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu did not rule out imposing a state of emergency after the interior minister said police had "lost control." Tourists in Paris had a taste of the disruption on Monday when they found the Louvre closed because of a small group of student protesters. Facing accusations that it failed to anticipate and respond to the violence, the government has vowed to re-establish order, while officials scrambled to contain public anger. The unrest, erupting just six months before France elects a successor to President Emmanuel Macron, threatened to continue, with organisers calling for a new round of protests next Saturday. Authorities said partial curfews would be enforced from Monday evening to Tuesday morning in a number of cities including Paris, Lille and Lyon, to protect businesses. In the capital, a curfew was ordered from 11:00 pm (2100 GMT), while demonstrations were banned
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led Wall Street gains on Monday as investors returned to the chip sector and other AI-related stocks following last week's bruising selloff, while investors waited for key corporate earnings reports. The benchmark S&P 500 and Nasdaq had posted their biggest weekly drop since late June on Friday, as concerns that higher interest rates could curb investments in AI infrastructure weighed on technology stocks, particularly data center operators. The selloff reflected mounting investor unease over how the costly AI build-out will be financed, a question that has increasingly pressured companies underpinning the U.S. bull market, which recently marked its fourth anniversary. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index was last up about 2 percent, putting it on course to snap an eight-day losing streak in which it fell about 15.7 percent for its longest run of declines since October 2008. "Rubber bands can only stretch so far in one direction before they snap and start reversing, and you finally saw that enough-is-enough moment in the semiconductors after Friday's close
