Older stories from Today News Brief, newest first.
Photo: JJxFile, CC BY 4.0, cropped and resized (file image: an AgiBot X2 humanoid robot at MWC 2026, not the Expedition A3 model used for the record) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Tech · 15:42
Chinese robotics company AgiBot has set a Guinness World Records title for the most humanoid robots dancing simultaneously. On 24 October, 110 of its full-size Expedition A3 humanoids danced together for 5 minutes and 43 seconds at the Yellow River International Convention and Exhibition Center in Jinan, Shandong province, and a Guinness adjudicator confirmed the count and presented a certificate on site.
Source: Science and Technology Daily; China News Service; Global Times; AgiBot
Photo: Village Global, CC BY 2.0 (file image: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, 2022) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW A.I. News · 06:37
OpenAI is now seeking to raise up to $20 billion in its latest funding round, down from an earlier target of up to $30 billion, CNBC confirmed after the Financial Times first reported the cut. The round has not closed and the figures may still change. The move follows a week in which investors questioned whether the huge spending on artificial intelligence will pay off.
Source: Financial Times; CNBC; TechCrunch
Photo: Victorgrigas, CC BY-SA 3.0 (file image: servers in a data centre) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW A.I. News · 06:37
OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic have pledged to honour a single, shared signal that lets publishers and other websites opt out of having their content used to train generative AI models. Today site owners must block each company's crawler separately. Anthropic has already started supporting the new rule, Microsoft will do so from 1 February 2027, Google in 2027 and OpenAI in the coming months.
Source: IETF; Microsoft; OpenAI; Google; The Verge; Engadget; AFP
Photo: Liauzh, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Hamilton's Ferrari at the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Sport · 06:37
Lewis Hamilton has taken his first pole position for Ferrari, and his first for more than three years, at the Mexico City Grand Prix, beating Mercedes' George Russell by just 0.009 seconds. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli will start fourth and can clinch the world title in Sunday's race unless one of the two men ahead of him wins and he has a bad day.
Source: BBC Sport; Sky Sports; Reuters; Formula1.com; FIA
Photo: Government of Romania (gov.ro), free to use with attribution (file image: the Niculescu cabinet, October 2026) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Romania · 06:37
Romania's Labour Minister Florin Manole says pensions will be indexed on 1 January 2027 according to the formula set by law, ruling out a freeze. A preliminary, unofficial simulation puts the increase at about 7.3%, costing around 9.6 billion lei, but the figures are not final. He also said the one-off aid for low-income pensioners will be paid in December together with the pension.
Source: Romanian Ministry of Labour (Florin Manole, Antena 3 CNN); News.ro; Mediafax; Libertatea; G4Media
Photo: Jay Dixit, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized (file image: Margaret Qualley at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 2024) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Entertainment · 15:31
Actor Margaret Qualley and musician and producer Jack Antonoff have filed for divorce after three years of marriage. Court records show the case was filed on Friday, 30 October, in Kings County Supreme Court in Brooklyn, New York, as an uncontested joint divorce, months after reports in July that the couple had separated.
Source: USA TODAY; AP; Rolling Stone; Los Angeles Times
Photo: Sergio López Prieto, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized (file image: Pope Leo XIV at Montserrat, Spain, 10 June 2026) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 15:31
Pope Leo XIV has become the first pope in history to vote in a United States election. The Holy See Press Office confirmed on Friday, 30 October, that the Chicago-born pontiff had submitted a mail-in ballot in Chicago ahead of the 3 November midterm elections, saying he has voted as a US citizen whenever he was eligible.
Source: Holy See Press Office; AP; Chicago Sun-Times; CBS News; NBC News
Photo: PanierAvide, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized (file image: the hemicycle of France's National Assembly, September 2024) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Tech · 04:44
France's National Assembly on Friday, 30 October, adopted a new tax of 0.055 euros (5.5 euro cents) per gigabyte of data that content providers such as Netflix, Google, Meta and Amazon send to internet users in France. The Socialist amendment to the 2027 budget passed by 11 votes to 10, against the advice of the government and the budget rapporteur. It is not law yet: the budget still has to clear the rest of the Assembly's first reading and the Senate.
Source: Assemblée nationale (amendment I-1358); Datan; Numerama; RTL; Télé Satellite
Image: still from a video posted by NEXTA (@nexta_tv) on X
NEW Politics · 22:22
A power struggle broke out at Poland's Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw on Friday, 30 October. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, one of the judges elected by parliament in 2026 whom the court's leadership had refused to admit, took charge as the longest-serving judge and suspended the tribunal's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy for one month. Police deployed around the building at her request. The opposition Law and Justice party called it a coup, and President Karol Nawrocki turned back his plane to Senegal.
Source: Rzeczpospolita; PAP; Reuters; Euronews; Warsaw Police (KSP)
Photo: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, 2023) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Business · 22:22
Intel shares fell about 30% on Friday, 30 October, their worst day since 1974 according to CNBC, after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter revenue well below expectations and said it does not expect positive cash flow this year. The slump spread through chip and hardware stocks and hit several companies that had just reported results, including Reddit, Roblox and Illumina, as the Nasdaq fell about 3.4%.
Source: Reuters; CNBC; AP; Investopedia; Investing.com; Yahoo Finance
Image: still from a video by Opinión Sonora, posted by @michelleriveraa and @volcaholic1 on X
NEW World · 22:22
Torrential rain linked to the remnants of the tropical system Vance flooded the Mexican port city of Guaymas, in Sonora state, on Friday, 30 October. Streets turned into rivers, cars were swept away and water entered homes. One person died after their car was carried off by a swollen arroyo, the city's mayor confirmed. Residents told local media the flooding was worse than during Hurricane Polo.
Source: El Imparcial; Diario del Yaqui; Expreso
Image: still from a video posted by Status-6 (@Archer83Able) on X
NEW World · 10:14
Several fires broke out at the Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in Russia's Samara region early on 30 October after a drone attack, according to residents, Ukrainian monitoring channels and the independent Russian outlet ASTRA. The plant, owned by Rosneft, makes jet fuel for the Russian air force. It is the first reported strike on a Russian refinery in nearly two weeks, a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine had informally paused such attacks under US pressure.
Source: Kyiv Independent; Kyiv Post; Meduza; ASTRA; The Moscow Times; LIGA.net; Reuters
Photo: U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Denise Johnson, public domain (file image: Patriot PAC-2 and PAC-3 launchers) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 06:38
The United States has approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles to Ukraine, worth an estimated $2.1 billion and funded entirely by Kyiv's allies in Europe and Canada. President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the decision but warned that deliveries could take several years, while Russia steps up strikes on Ukraine's power grid ahead of winter.
Source: US State Department; BBC; Reuters; The Guardian
Photo: U.S. Navy / Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Angel Roman-Otero, public domain (file image: a merchant ship in the Strait of Hormuz, 2004) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 06:38
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy said on Friday that four oil tankers exploded and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after using what Tehran calls unauthorised routes, including a tanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude. The claims could not be independently verified, but the UK maritime agency UKMTO reported separate incidents in which tankers were hit by unknown projectiles and explosive devices.
Source: Reuters; AP; UKMTO; CNA; Al Jazeera
Photo: CDC / Cynthia Goldsmith, public domain (file image: colourised electron micrograph of an Ebola virus particle) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 06:38
More than 5,000 people have now died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, government data released on Friday show. Over 10,000 have been infected since the outbreak was declared in May, making it the country's deadliest on record and the second-largest Ebola epidemic ever. There is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain behind it.
Source: DR Congo government data via Reuters; Al Jazeera; Saudi Press Agency
Photo: NVO, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized (file image: Potapovsky Lane 3, Moscow, the address of Novaya Gazeta's newsroom) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Politics · 06:38
Novaya Gazeta, one of the last critical media outlets still working from inside Russia, has announced that it will close permanently next month. The newspaper, whose former editor Dmitry Muratov won the 2021 Nobel peace prize, says it has been stripped of its newsroom, its donation platforms and its legal right to publish. "This is the story of a country and a society that are being systematically crushed," editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov wrote.
Source: Novaya Gazeta; The Guardian; Reuters; DW
Photo: Press service of the Russian State Duma, CC BY 4.0, cropped (file image: Sergei Lavrov, 19 February 2025) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Politics · 06:38
The traditional group photo opening the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta was cancelled on Friday after about a third of the delegations, including EU countries, the UK and Australia, said they would not appear next to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the host, called off the photo but opened the talks with an appeal for unity.
Source: The Guardian; BBC; Reuters; Al Jazeera
Photo: Asurnipal, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: high-voltage power lines in Transylvania, Romania) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Romania · 06:38
Household electricity prices in Romania rose by 51.6% in the first half of 2026 compared with a year earlier, the biggest increase in the European Union, Eurostat data published on Friday show. Measured against purchasing power, Romanians now pay the most for electricity in the EU. Romania also recorded the largest rise in household gas prices, while EU averages for both fell.
Source: Eurostat; Agerpres; Biziday
Photo: Sven Mandel, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: Fallon Sherrock at the Mannheim Darts Gala, December 2022) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Sport · 06:38
Fallon Sherrock won £501,000 on Friday night by beating reigning world champion Luke Littler in a one-leg shoot-out at Manchester Central, broadcast live worldwide on Netflix. Littler had already seen off 14 amateur challengers when Sherrock won the bull, hit a 180 and finished on double 20, ending the event on the spot.
Source: BBC Sport; Sky Sports
Photo: Zinskauf, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: a Google TPU 3.0 board, not the satellite hardware) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW A.I. News · 06:38
Google says its first Project Suncatcher satellite has successfully booted its Tensor Processing Units in orbit and run the Gemma 4 model on board, sending back a haiku about being in space. The test is an early step in an experimental project to find out whether data centres for artificial intelligence could one day be built in space and powered by the Sun.
Source: Google; The Verge; TechCrunch
Image: still from an animated map by @USronaldcarter on X
NEW Tech · 07:46
A run of cyberattacks on financial firms over the past few weeks shows how artificial intelligence is making hacking faster and cheaper. Investigators say AI tools were used against banks in South Korea and Latin America and to clone a voice in a €95m fraud at an Italian bank, while Indian lenders, a Japanese trading platform, the Bitget crypto exchange and Australian regulators are dealing with their own attacks and warnings. The incidents are separate and have not been linked to a single group.
Source: The Korea Times; Wall Street Journal; Reuters; Straiker; The Economic Times; Bitget; Kyodo News; Australian Signals Directorate
Photo: Jon Worth, CC BY 2.0 (file image: a Renfe AVE and an Iryo train at Seville Santa Justa station) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
BREAKING World · 11:24
A Renfe AVE train ran into the back of a stationary Iryo train near Urda station in Toledo province on Wednesday morning. Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano García-Page raised the toll on Thursday to at least 69 dead after one of the hospitalised injured died; of the 68 counted on Wednesday, 24 were on the AVE and 44 on the Iryo train. Thirteen of the victims have been identified. Of 110 people admitted in Castilla-La Mancha, 39 remained in hospital on Friday, 17 of them in intensive care. The black boxes of both trains have been recovered. A figure of 74 dead briefly shown on Thursday by the rail accident investigation body was corrected to 69. The investigation authority's first preliminary report estimates that the AVE hit the stationary Iryo at 160 to 200 km/h; all hypotheses on the cause remain open. Spain's Foreign Ministry counts 51 foreign nationals of 23 nationalities affected, including an Argentine woman who died. All figures are provisional. Transport Minister Óscar Puente said the AVE was told to resume running after a signalling failure, even though it was obliged to stop; the government's first hypothesis is human error, and the investigation will establish the cause. On Friday Puente ruled out resigning, said he had never used the term "human error" and that responsibilities have yet to be determined. The two trains carried 544 passengers.
Source: RTVE / RNE, Adif, 112 Castilla-La Mancha, Junta de Castilla-La Mancha (via Europa Press, EFE), Cadena SER, elEconomista, EFE (via ABC), La Vanguardia, Europa Press, El País, ABC, laSexta, El Español, Onda Cero, BBC Mundo; AP
Photo: European Commission / Claudio Centonze, CC BY 4.0 (file image: Christine Lagarde) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
BREAKING Business · 12:52
Christine Lagarde will step down as president of the European Central Bank on 7 February 2027, the ECB announced on Thursday, about nine months before her eight-year term was due to end in October 2027. She informed the Governing Council and European Council President António Costa, who said the process to appoint her successor starts immediately.
Source: European Central Bank, European Council, DW, Reuters
Photo: Slyronit, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: fairy chimneys around Göreme, 2011) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
BREAKING World · 15:55
Two people were killed on Thursday when rocks broke off a fairy chimney near the entrance to the Göreme Open-Air Museum in Turkey's Cappadocia region, Nevşehir Governor Hüseyin Kök said. He blamed a landslide caused by heavy rain. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek later put the number of injured at five, citing initial findings, and announced an investigation. Search and rescue teams kept working at the site to check whether anyone else was trapped under the rocks.
Source: Nevşehir Governorship (Gov. Hüseyin Kök), Anadolu Agency, AP, NTV, Hürriyet
Photo: VKras, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: Dnipro railway station, 2019) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
BREAKING World · 16:55
At least 14 people were killed on Thursday when a Russian jet-powered drone struck a crowded platform at the main railway station in Dnipro, in central Ukraine, local officials said. Another 14 people were wounded, among them an 11-year-old boy. A passenger train bound for Zaporizhzhia was standing at the platform when the drone hit. President Volodymyr Zelensky called for new sanctions on Russia.
Source: BBC News (Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, Ukrzaliznytsia, President Zelensky)
Photo: Clema12, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: the Knesset building in Jerusalem) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 19:09
Israel's Central Elections Committee said on Thursday that it had finished counting every ballot from Tuesday's election for the 26th Knesset, including the double-envelope votes of soldiers and diplomats. Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud is the largest party with 27 of 120 seats, but his coalition has only 53, the opposition 'change bloc' 48 and the Arab parties 19, so no camp has the 61 seats needed to govern on its own.
Source: Israel's Central Elections Committee via Globes, Haaretz, Ynet
Photo: Jernej Furman, CC BY 2.0, cropped (illustrative image: the ChatGPT app on a smartphone in front of a laptop) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW A.I. News · 21:45
OpenAI said on Thursday that its ChatGPT Pro 100 and Pro 500 plans now include twice their previous Work and Codex allowance, and that Business Premium seats also get more usage. It also cancelled a planned reduction for Pro 200 subscribers announced in September: those on the lower allowance have had it doubled. Prices are unchanged, and usage on the Plus plan stays the same.
Source: OpenAI
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped (file image: Patrick Stewart at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, for Star Trek: Picard) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Entertainment · 21:56
Sir Patrick Stewart, the British stage actor who became a global star as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films, has died aged 86. He died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, cared for by his wife Sunny, after what his representative called a brief journey with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Source: Deadline / The Hollywood Reporter
Photo: Italian Army, CC BY 2.5 (file image: Italian Army CH-47F Chinook helicopters during exercise CAEX 2025) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 06:46
Four people were killed and 11 injured when an Italian military CH-47 Chinook helicopter serving with the European Union force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR) crashed during a routine training flight in the Brcko area on Thursday. All 15 people on board were Italian.
Source: Al Jazeera; AFP; Reuters
Photo: Anderseidesvik, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: Jensen Huang at Stanford, April 2026) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Tech · 06:46
US intelligence agencies believe an executive at a Singapore data centre company, suspected of smuggling Nvidia chips to China, was a Chinese intelligence asset who built a close relationship with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, the New York Times reported. Nvidia says the contacts were ordinary customer meetings.
Source: The Guardian; The New York Times
Photo: Fabebk, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Writers Guild of America picket line during the 2023 strike) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW A.I. News · 06:46
The actors' union SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America East and West and the American Federation of Musicians have asked a federal judge to reject a blanket fair use exemption for training AI models, in the consolidated copyright case brought by news outlets and authors against OpenAI.
Source: Deadline
Photo: U.S. Army / Staff Sgt. Julius Harris, public domain (file image: US troops at Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, Romania) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Romania · 06:46
Romania has made an offer to the United States to cover some of the costs of keeping American troops on its territory, Foreign Minister Dan Neculăescu said. He gave no figures, saying talks are ongoing and no final decision has been taken.
Source: Digi24 (News.ro, TVR Info); Libertatea
Photo: kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: House of the National Assembly of Serbia, Belgrade) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Politics · 06:46
Newly elected MPs from Serbia's student-led movement, which ousted former president Aleksandar Vučić's party in Sunday's election, have called for the heads of the police, the BIA security agency and the anti-terror unit to stand down, fearing evidence could be destroyed during the weeks-long handover.
Source: BBC News
Photo: A.k.zehnnullzwo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped (file image: Elke Sommer) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Entertainment · 06:46
Elke Sommer, the German actress who became a Hollywood star in the 1960s with films such as the Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark, has died aged 85. Bild reported that she died of heart failure in Los Angeles.
Source: The Guardian; Bild
Photo: Poets & Players, CC BY 3.0, cropped (file image: Sarah Howe, 2024) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Culture · 06:46
Poet Sarah Howe has won the Forward prize for best collection, one of the UK's most prestigious poetry awards, for Foretokens, a book about new parenthood, the death of her father and her mother's early life in Hong Kong. The prize is worth £10,000.
Source: The Guardian
Photo: si. robi, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped (file image: Alexander Zverev at the Monte-Carlo Masters 2023) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Sport · 06:46
Alexander Zverev will become the men's world number one on Monday after beating Tallon Griekspoor 6-4 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. The 29-year-old is the second German to top the rankings, after Boris Becker in 1991.
Source: BBC Sport; DW
Photo: Gauthier Delecroix, CC BY 2.0 (illustrative file image: a man looking at his phone) / Source: Flickr via Wikimedia Commons
NEW Lifestyle · 06:46
The online "manosphere" and misogyny should be treated as a public health problem, like smoking or obesity, according to a report in the medical journal the Lancet. Its authors call for a coordinated response from governments, schools, health services and communities.
Source: The Guardian; The Lancet; Sky News
Photo: Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0 (file image: the A1 motorway near Wallisellen, Switzerland) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Travel · 06:46
Switzerland is considering a temporary cut in the motorway speed limit from 120 km/h to 80 km/h to save fuel, as the country faces what officials call a "very tense" supply situation. Emergency diesel reserves were already released last week. Drivers heading to or through Switzerland should watch for changes.
Source: HotNews (News.ro); Aargauer Zeitung; Digi24
Photo: Ymirazudis, CC BY-SA 4.0 (illustrative file image: a Filipino dish served in a Manila-area restaurant) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Cooking · 06:46
The second edition of the Michelin Guide for Manila and Environs and Cebu recognises 127 establishments. Helm by chef Josh Boutwood again holds the top rating of two stars, nine restaurants have one star, with Flow the only newcomer, and 31 places received a Bib Gourmand for good value.
Source: GMA News; MICHELIN Guide
Photo: Gross Raymond, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Oleshky, Kherson region, at sunset) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 06:50
Both sides say they will stop firing around the besieged Russian-occupied town from 27 October so aid can enter and civilians who want to leave can be evacuated.
Source: BBC News
Photo: Akonnchiroll, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Sony's headquarters at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, August 2023) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Tech · 19:38
Sony Network Communications says hackers broke into the member database of its Japanese internet provider So-net on 19 October, exposing names, birth dates and phone numbers in 2,585,481 records, plus passwords for 54,401 email accounts and 16 bank account records.
Source: Sony Network Communications (So-net notice, 27 Oct 2026); NTT Docomo; ITmedia
Photo: 钉钉 (Wikimedia Commons user), CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: the Shanghai Stock Exchange building in Pudong, June 2022) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Business · 20:18
Shanghai's STAR50 index of AI and chip companies has fallen about 40% since its June peak, wiping out roughly $480 billion in market value, a Reuters analysis shows. Retail favourites such as Unitree have halved, while US tech stocks have only dipped.
Source: Reuters (analysis, 26 Oct 2026); market data via Wind
Photo: Alecsandra Dragoi / Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Flickr), CC BY 2.0 (file image: Anthropic's San Francisco offices during a visit by UK minister Peter Kyle, October 2024) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW A.I. News · 16:25
The company behind Claude has publicly filed a Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It wants to list its Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as "ANT". The number of shares and the price range have not been set yet.
Source: SEC EDGAR (Anthropic, PBC Form S-1); Anthropic; CNBC; AP
Photo: Lula Oficial (Flickr), CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Lula greets supporters on Avenida Paulista, São Paulo, after his 2022 election win) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 02:30
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been re-elected president of Brazil. With 99.88% of polling stations counted, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) gives him 51.76% of valid votes, or 64,149,501, against 48.24% for Flávio Bolsonaro, who had led the first round.
Source: Superior Electoral Court (TSE); AP; The Guardian
Photo: Emilija Knezevic, CC BY 4.0 (file image: Belgrade residents welcome marching students on the eve of the 15 March 2025 protest) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 22:56
The student-led "Student List – Students Win" won 52.1% of the vote and 138 of the 250 seats in Serbia's snap parliamentary election, according to the first projection by Ipsos and CeSID. Aleksandar Vučić's list is projected at 39.3% and 104 seats. Vučić conceded on Sunday night and crowds celebrated in Belgrade.
Source: Ipsos/CeSID via N1 and Mondo; The Guardian
Photo: President.bg, CC BY 2.5 BG (file image: Andrey Gyurov with President Iliana Iotova, 2025) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 20:22
Sitting president Iliana Iotova and her running mate Kiril Valchev lead the first round of Bulgaria's presidential election with about 35-36.5% of the vote, according to three exit polls, ahead of Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev on about 32%. No one is near a majority, so the two pairs are heading for a runoff on 1 November. Turnout was very low, at around 21-22%.
Source: BNT; NOVA; 24 Chasa
Photo: Guilherme Lara Campos/A2 Fotografia for the São Paulo State Government, CC BY 2.0 (file image: Line 15-Silver monorail test run, January 2014) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 16:20
A large crane tipped over onto the elevated track of São Paulo Metro Line 15-Silver on Saturday morning, and a driverless train hit the part resting on the rails. No passengers were hurt; the crane operator injured his foot when he jumped from the cab. Police have opened an inquiry, and the line was back to normal on Sunday.
Source: CNN Brasil; G1
Photo: Crosa from Nuernberg, CC BY 2.0 (file image: Walter Koenig at a fan convention, May 2016) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Entertainment · 07:57
Walter Koenig, who played navigator Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series and six films, has died at his home in North Hollywood aged 90, his representatives said. He also starred as Alfred Bester in Babylon 5.
Source: BBC; AP; Los Angeles Times (26 Oct 2026)
Photo: Werner100359, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Harry Kane before a Bayern Munich friendly in Salzburg, January 2025; cropped) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Sport · 07:57
Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane won the 2026 Ballon d'Or in London after a 73-goal season, ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal. Alexia Putellas won the women's award for the third time.
Source: BBC Sport; ESPN; AP (26-27 Oct 2026); first reported in Romanian by Biziday
Photo: High Contrast, CC BY 3.0 DE (file image: the Jordan-Syria border, December 2009) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 07:57
Jordan's air force hit what it called militant hideouts in southern Syria in retaliation for Friday's attack on a church funeral in Karak that killed nine people. Syria says the strikes killed seven civilians, including three children, denied any coordination and closed its only crossing with Jordan.
Source: AP; BBC; Al Jazeera; Reuters (26-27 Oct 2026)
Photo: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Building 92 at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, 2016) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Business · 07:57
Microsoft has launched a Voluntary Exit Offer for eligible staff in the US, Canada, the UK and India. About 60,000 people, roughly 27% of its 223,000 employees, can take a severance package as the company pours money into AI data centres.
Source: Official Microsoft Blog (26 Oct 2026); CNBC; GeekWire; Reuters
Photo: Whitepixels, CC0 (file image: Brașov and Tâmpa mountain, 2018) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Romania · 07:57
Romania's intelligence service SRI and anti-organised crime prosecutors DIICOT say a sabotage network coordinated from Russia started the 14 September fire on the Carfil industrial site in Brașov. Two Belarusians were arrested in Germany and a Ukrainian has been located in Poland.
Source: Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and DIICOT statements, 26 Oct 2026 (via Agerpres); first reported by Biziday
Photo: Ka23 13, CC BY 4.0 (file image: Starlink antennas on a cruise ship, January 2025) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Tech · 06:50
Researchers at TrendAI, part of Trend Micro, found that Israeli ad tech company Discover-Tech was the top bidder for ads shown to Starlink users in more than 100 countries, likely to locate or watch them, six people told Reuters. Citizen Lab had already accused the firm of using ads to deliver spyware.
Source: TrendAI (Trend Micro) report via Reuters (27 Oct 2026); Citizen Lab; Confiant; heise online
Photo: Capt. Andrew Layton, U.S. Air Force, public domain (file image: a Romanian Air Force F-16 landing at Borcea Air Base, October 2021) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Romania · 06:50
Romania's Defence Ministry has signed a contract worth about 326.5 million lei, excluding VAT, with Thales Romania for four mobile approach and landing radar systems for the Air Force. Deliveries start in 2028 and, according to Thales, will be complete by 2030.
Source: Ministry of National Defence (MApN press release, 27 Oct 2026, via Agerpres); Thales
Photo: NASA, public domain (file image: Tropical Cyclone Michaung over the Bay of Bengal, December 2023) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 06:50
The very severe cyclonic storm Arnab made landfall on India's Andhra Pradesh coast in the early hours of Wednesday, 28 October, with winds of 125–135 km/h gusting to 150 km/h. More than 84,000 people were moved to shelters; no casualties had been reported by the morning.
Source: India Meteorological Department (bulletins, 27–28 Oct 2026); Government of Andhra Pradesh via The Indian Express / PTI
Photo: Carlos Moura/Agência Senado, CC BY 4.0 (file image: Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, June 2025) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW World · 06:50
Brazil's defeated presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro has travelled to the United States, an ally and a US government source told Reuters, after he missed a Supreme Court deadline to surrender his passports. Brazilian police have cancelled them, and Washington says it will give him and his family visas.
Source: Reuters; BBC / BBC News Brasil; Agência Brasil; AP
Photo: Spiridon Manoliu, CC BY 3.0 (file image: Cape Kaliakra, Bulgaria) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
BREAKING World · 14:56
The Liberian-flagged container ship Contship Jet sank in the Black Sea around midnight, hours after three naval drones struck it off Bulgaria's coast on Wednesday, Bulgarian authorities said. The ship was carrying 421 containers from Haifa to Constanța. All 18 crew members were rescued and taken to Varna. Bulgaria's Ministry of Defence said a French patrol aircraft had spotted the drones and raised the alarm.
Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Defence, Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications, AP, BTA, BNT, Radio Bulgaria (BNR), Romanian Ministry of Defence
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Google sign on Charleston Road, Mountain View, 2022) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
BREAKING Tech · 21:49
Google on Wednesday announced Gemini 4 Carbon, a new frontier AI model aimed at long-running coding work and cybersecurity, just two weeks after Gemini 4 Argon. It ranks first on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5.0 with 59 points, but for now only a group of vetted cyber defenders can use it, through Google's Fairwind Program.
Source: Google (The Keyword blog), Reuters, VentureBeat, Artificial Analysis
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file image: Google sign on Charleston Road, Mountain View, California, 2022) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Business · 06:39
Shares in Google's parent company Alphabet fell more than 10% in after-hours trading after it missed analysts' forecasts for both revenue and profit for the first time in nearly four years. Heavy spending on artificial intelligence pushed free cash flow deep into negative territory, overshadowing a doubling of cloud revenue.
Source: CNBC; Reuters; Variety
Photo: AUR – Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor, CC0 (file image: Călin Georgescu, 18 May 2025) / Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW Romania · 06:39
The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Wednesday evening extended the pre-trial detention of former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu by 30 days, overturning a lower court that had ordered his release under judicial control. He is accused by prosecutors of defrauding a businessman of €1.1 million. The decision is final.
Source: Bucharest Court of Appeal ruling, via Digi24