President Donald Trump said at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, that he could have won the Vietnam War in a week. He criticized past U.S. presidents and appeared to confuse details about Agent Orange and the places targeted during the war.
Key Facts
Trump spoke about the Vietnam War while discussing U.S. operations in Iran and Venezuela.
He said the Vietnam War lasted 21 years and involved thousands of deaths.
Trump said the U.S. military repeatedly dropped a substance in forests rather than targeting Ho Chi Minh City and other places.
Audience members supplied the name Agent Orange when Trump referred to the substance.
Agent Orange was a chemical herbicide used by the U.S. military to destroy forests in Vietnam.
Trump described Agent Orange as red, though its name refers to the colored marking on the containers it was stored in.
Ho Chi Minh City was formerly called Saigon and was the capital of U.S.-allied South Vietnam during the war.
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A woman was arrested after videos showed her attacking conservative influencer Liz Benichou during a political event at the University of Michigan on Sunday. Campus police said officers saw a university student assault a woman who was not affiliated with the university; Benichou said she was receiving care and would be OK.
Key Facts
The confrontation began at a table where commentator Joseph Anthony Redden was displaying signs about Islam.
The woman confronted Redden and argued with people at the table and nearby.
Benichou, who was scheduled to speak at an event that day, joined the discussion before the woman attacked her.
Videos showed Benichou fall to the ground as onlookers called for police.
A police officer arrested the woman at the scene and escorted her to a police vehicle.
Campus police told the Daily Mail that officers responded at about 5 p.m. on Sunday.
A conservative activist group identified the arrested woman as a supporter of Abdul El-Sayed, but Newsweek said it could not verify that claim.
Benichou said she was assaulted while exercising her First Amendment rights and thanked law enforcement for intervening.
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Ryanair is considering a temporary wage freeze to help cover a sharp increase in fuel costs linked to the US-Israel war with Iran. The airline expects fuel prices to stay high well into 2027 unless the conflict is resolved quickly, and says higher fares may not cover the extra expense.
Key Facts
Ryanair forecasts its fuel bill will rise by €2bn in the short term.
The airline is considering temporary pay freezes among several cost measures.
Ryanair expects European airfares to increase to help cover higher fuel costs.
The company said fuel prices could remain high well into 2027 without a swift resolution to the conflict.
The BBC contacted Unite, the union representing Ryanair employees, for comment.
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Since 1946, the president’s party has lost House seats in 18 of 20 U.S. midterm elections, with an average loss of 26 seats. Senate results have been less consistent because only about one-third of seats are contested each cycle, and the two chambers sometimes shift in opposite directions.
Key Facts
The 20 midterms covered in the article ran from 1946 through 2022.
The president’s party lost House seats in 18 of those elections, averaging 26 seats lost.
The only exceptions were Bill Clinton’s Democrats in 1998 and George W. Bush’s Republicans in 2002.
The largest House loss was 64 Democratic seats in 2010, during Barack Obama’s presidency.
The president’s party lost Senate seats in 13 of the 20 midterms and lost Senate control in six.
Senators serve six-year terms, so about one-third of Senate seats are contested in each election cycle.
In 2018, Republicans lost the House but gained a Senate seat; in 2022, Democrats lost the House but gained one Senate seat.
An opposition majority in either chamber can block legislation, since bills must pass both the House and Senate.
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Australian author Craig Silvey was sentenced to seven months in jail for possessing and distributing child exploitation material. He pleaded guilty in May, and the sentence was backdated to 22 October; he is eligible for parole.
Key Facts
Police arrested Silvey in January after raiding his home in Western Australia and seizing electronic devices.
Silvey, 44, pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child exploitation material in May.
A judge described his actions as serious and said the abuse depicted in the material causes lasting trauma to children.
Prosecutors said Silvey’s conduct contributed to the cycle of abuse; his lawyer argued that he had acted to cope with psychological distress.
Silvey is best known for the novel Jasper Jones and the children’s book Runt, both adapted for film.
Since his arrest, publishers and bookshops have withdrawn his works, and some schools have removed Jasper Jones from teaching lists.
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Mal Evans’s 95,000-word memoir, based on his diaries and recordings, will be published for the first time in December under the title *With the Beatles*. Evans, the Beatles’ road manager, recounts the band’s career and describes their 1965 meeting with Elvis Presley as the greatest day of his time with the group.
Key Facts
Evans worked with the Beatles from their early days at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where he had been a bouncer.
He kept diaries and notebooks, took photographs, and collected lyric sheets and other items from the band’s tours and studio work.
Evans dictated material for the memoir in 1975 and hired a stenographer to help prepare it.
His family made the memoir materials available to Beatles author Kenneth Womack.
The memoir follows the Beatles from the *Help!* album through their later studio years.
Evans wrote that Elvis played Beatles records during their meeting at his Bel Air home in August 1965, then found guitars for the group.
The memoir includes Evans’s account of the Beatles’ 1966 tour of the Philippines and the reaction after they declined an invitation to an event with Imelda Marcos.
Evans died in 1976, aged 40, after Los Angeles police shot him during an incident involving an air rifle.
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The article challenges Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim that Muslim Arabs do not produce science or literature, citing Arab and Muslim Nobel laureates and other contributors. It argues that differences in knowledge production reflect historical and institutional conditions, while noting challenges in research and education across many Arab countries.
Key Facts
Kennedy made the remarks at a campaign rally in Michigan, according to the article.
The article says Kennedy attributed the lack of scientific and literary achievement among Muslim Arabs to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The article names Naguib Mahfouz, Mohamed ElBaradei, Tawakkol Karman, Ahmed Zewail, Moungi Bawendi and Omar Yaghi as Nobel laureates.
The article describes past centers of Islamic scholarship including Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Cordoba.
It says scholars in those centers built on and exchanged knowledge from Greek, Syriac, Indian and other traditions.
The article says conditions that support knowledge production include institutions, education, economics, political support and networks for sharing knowledge.
It identifies research funding, university independence, education quality, research freedom and retaining scientists as challenges in many Arab countries.
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The Idaho Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Lori Vallow Daybell’s appeal of her convictions for the deaths of her two children and conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell. Her lawyer argues that the trial court denied her a speedy trial, improperly rejected her choice of attorney and wrongly allowed jurors to hear about other shootings.
Key Facts
Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, went missing in 2019; their bodies were later found buried on Chad Daybell’s property in rural Idaho.
Lori Vallow Daybell received three life sentences in Idaho.
Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for the three killings.
Vallow Daybell’s appeal challenges the trial court’s decisions on her trial timing, attorney and evidence about shootings in Arizona.
Vallow Daybell was separately convicted in Arizona of conspiring to murder her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, and her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux.
Charles Vallow was fatally shot in July 2019 by Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox; Boudreaux survived a later shooting.
Vallow Daybell has also appealed her Arizona convictions.
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Afghanistan’s Taliban government said it was seriously concerned by reports that the United States plans to send more than 150 Afghans to Pakistan for eventual return to Afghanistan. Advocacy groups warn that former allies of U.S. forces and their families could face danger if returned, while Taliban officials say they are ready to discuss the matter with Washington.
Key Facts
U.S. media reports and AfghanEvac say more than 150 Afghans in the United States could be deported through Pakistan.
The people expected to be deported include relatives of Afghans who assisted U.S. forces before the 2021 withdrawal.
Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi urged the United States to coordinate with Afghan authorities and consider the rights of the people affected.
The Taliban announced a general amnesty for people who worked with Western-backed forces and has said they can return safely.
The United Nations has recorded reports of extrajudicial killings, detentions and other abuses in Afghanistan.
Anonymous U.S. officials told The New York Times that Pakistan would oversee the Afghans’ expulsion to Afghanistan because the United States cannot arrange deportations there directly.
Pakistan ordered law enforcement earlier this year to arrest Afghan citizens without visas, as part of a policy that has returned millions of Afghans over several years.
Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have worsened amid deadly border clashes and a near-total border closure.
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Hungary’s government plans to publish a searchable online database of communist-era state informant files on November 4. The release is intended to give the public access to records that remained largely restricted for decades, though many files are incomplete and some people named in them may still be alive.
Key Facts
Hungary’s communist state-security services used informants from 1945 to 1989 to monitor society and suppress dissent.
Informants included people who were coerced or blackmailed, as well as people recruited with promises of advantages.
Péter Magyar promised during his election campaign to make the files public.
The government passed a law in September to allow the files to be released.
The release was first scheduled for the anniversary of the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, then postponed to November 4.
Historians estimate that 50,000 to 60,000 people are named in the records and that about 10% of them are still alive.
Researchers say the searchable database will make Hungary’s former state-security records especially accessible compared with those in other former Eastern Bloc countries.
Many files are incomplete, and records were destroyed or lost during the 1956 uprising and the 1989 transition.
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Belfast City Hospital has introduced a Da Vinci robotic system for complex gynaecological surgery, including operations for endometriosis. The system may help treat patients sooner, while Colleen Crothers says she waited years for care and ultimately needed a hysterectomy.
Key Facts
The Da Vinci system joined Belfast City Hospital’s gynaecology team in May.
The hospital’s system is the first of its kind on the island of Ireland, according to the article.
The robot is operated by surgeons and uses movable instruments designed to work in tight pelvic spaces.
The system cost £2.4 million and was funded through charitable donations for gynaecological services.
It has performed 130 operations so far, including 105 on women with complex endometriosis.
Four consultants have been trained to use the system.
Northern Ireland’s average wait for complex surgery involving several specialties is about seven years.
Crothers first experienced chronic period pain at 14 and was diagnosed with adenomyosis and endometriosis 22 years later; she had a hysterectomy at 41.
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Christmas charities in Chard and Taunton say they expect to help more families this year while receiving fewer donations. Organizers say rising living costs have increased requests for gifts and referrals from support services.
Key Facts
The Chard Christmas Present Appeal reports higher-than-usual demand and fewer donations this year.
Founder Martyna Lee said the appeal relies entirely on donations and receives no funding.
Lee started the appeal in 2019 as part of the Lord's Larder food bank in Chard.
Christmas Sparkle gave about 500 individual gifts in 2015 and around 10,000 last year, according to founder Gill Harrison.
Christmas Sparkle expects requests to rise further this year.
Christmas Sparkle works with schools, social services, police, women's refuges and community nursing teams.
Harrison said these services have increased their referrals to Christmas Sparkle over recent years.
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UN human rights employee Mohammad el-Shami died in Houthi custody in Yemen after being detained since June 2024. The UN has called for an independent investigation and the release of other detained personnel, while his family has not been told how he died.
Key Facts
El-Shami worked for the UN Human Rights Office and had been detained by the Houthis since June 2024.
His family was notified of his death more than a month after it occurred and has received no explanation of its cause or circumstances.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for a prompt, transparent and independent investigation.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for the immediate release of detained UN personnel and other workers.
The Houthis accused more than 60 UN and NGO workers detained in 2024 of belonging to an alleged American-Israeli spy network.
Amnesty International reported that, as of February 2026, 73 UN staff and dozens of other humanitarian workers were detained.
El-Shami was the second UN staff member reported to have died in Houthi custody; a World Food Programme employee died there in February 2025.
Human rights advocates say Houthi control of prisons, medical records and witnesses makes accountability for deaths in custody difficult.
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World Give has launched a Staffordshire appeal asking residents to fill shoeboxes with gifts for children who might otherwise go without a Christmas present. Schools and local charities will identify families and distribute the boxes discreetly.
Key Facts
Residents can collect empty shoeboxes from participating supermarkets, fill them with gifts and return them for distribution.
World Give says it has helped more than 100,000 children around the world over the past 20 years.
The charity is focusing this year’s appeal on children and families in Staffordshire.
World Give trustee Adam Contoret said schools and charities are well placed to identify families who could benefit.
A Family Action survey of 2,000 parents and carers found one in five had considered cancelling Christmas because of costs.
The survey found one in nine respondents could not afford a Christmas present for their child.
Local students suggested including practical items such as stationery alongside gifts.
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A domestic violence survivor in England says her former partner was released from prison on 15 October without the GPS tag she had been told would monitor him. A report by the chief inspectors for probation and prisons found that nearly half of offenders are not tagged promptly after release, with some waiting up to five months.
Key Facts
Michelle said her former partner punched her, threatened her with a knife and kicked in her front door in 2024.
He was convicted of two counts of assault by beating and one count of affray, then sentenced to 38 months in prison in November 2024.
After his release in February 2025, he was ordered to stay away from Michelle’s home and town.
Michelle said he breached probation conditions in July 2025 and in April and August 2026; she reported two breaches that led to his recall to prison for 56 days each.
He was released again on 15 October 2026, but Michelle said no GPS tag had been fitted despite assurances that one would be.
Michelle moved with her four children to a static caravan after receiving council advice and said relatives were staying with her for safety.
A report by the chief inspectors for probation and prisons found that nearly half of offenders are not tagged promptly after release, and one in 10 waits as long as five months.
The prison officers’ union, POA, wrote to Justice Secretary Alex Norris proposing that prison staff be trained to fit tags before offenders leave prison.
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The Strait of Hormuz remains dangerous and costly for shipping, despite U.S. claims that it is open. Analyst Trita Parsi says Iran still controls passage through the strait and that a deal to reopen it is central to efforts to end the war.
Key Facts
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains dangerous.
Shipping through the strait remains costly.
The United States says the strait is open.
Analyst Trita Parsi says Iran continues to exert control over passage through the strait.
The article says a deal to reopen the waterway is a key part of efforts to end the war.
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Russia and Ukraine accused each other of cyberattacks on emergency alert systems as a ceasefire in Ukraine’s Kherson region expired on Sunday. The incidents came amid reports of Russian strikes in the Odesa region and emergency power cuts in Kyiv and the surrounding area.
Key Facts
Russia’s emergencies ministry said hackers posted false information on its public warning app on Monday.
Ukraine said it suspected its air raid alert system had been compromised after false alerts warned of a radiation threat.
The ceasefire in Kherson region ended on Sunday after Russia declined to extend it, according to Kyiv.
Russia’s state statistics service said cyberattacks targeted it from October 29 to November 1, but no data was compromised, Interfax reported.
Russia’s defence ministry said it struck a military facility in Ukraine’s Odesa region and a cargo vessel it described as being used for military purposes.
An official in Odesa said a Russian attack injured four people.
Emergency power cuts took effect in Kyiv and the surrounding region on orders from grid operator Ukrenergo, energy provider DTEK said.
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Danielle Brown, 31, says she was sent home from Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary after doctors found that her baby, Maisie, had died. She gave birth two days later, after being told to call to book an appointment; Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust accepted that aspects of her care fell short and apologized.
Key Facts
Brown was seven months pregnant in February 2023 when she became unwell with symptoms that can indicate pre-eclampsia.
At Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, staff found problems with the baby’s heart rate and arranged an ambulance transfer to Newcastle for an emergency caesarean.
After the transfer to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Brown says she was admitted but discharged the next day.
Brown returned to hospital within 24 hours and doctors could not find the baby’s heartbeat.
Brown says staff sent her home after the stillbirth diagnosis and told her to call on Friday to book a time to return and give birth.
Two days later, Brown gave birth to Maisie after 10 hours in labour.
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust said aspects of the care it provided fell short and offered an apology.
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Economists at CBA and NAB have cut their outlook for Australia, citing persistent inflation, higher oil prices and a weakening property market. The Reserve Bank of Australia is widely expected to raise interest rates on Tuesday, which could further slow growth and increase unemployment and recession risks.
Key Facts
CBA forecasts real GDP growth of 1% by the middle of next year, down from its previous estimate of 1.8%.
CBA projects growth of 1.1% through 2027.
NAB forecasts unemployment could rise from 4.7% to as high as 5.4% by the end of next year; CBA expects it to peak at 5.1%.
Brent crude rose from about US$72 a barrel in early July to above US$110 in recent days, as the Middle East conflict broadened.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said home prices could fall by as much as 15% before levelling off late next year; Sydney prices were already down 10% from their recent peak.
Oliver said the chance of recession could reach 45% if the RBA raises rates as expected on Tuesday.
A weaker housing market could reduce household spending and homebuilding, adding to economic pressures.
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Opposition to data centres has become an issue in the 2026 U.S. midterm campaigns, as communities raise concerns about environmental effects, electricity bills and local influence. In Georgia, residents are organizing against a proposed $17 billion data centre in Coweta County, while opposition to such projects has drawn support across party lines.
Key Facts
Georgia is described in the article as the leading U.S. market for data centre construction.
The proposed Project Sail site covers about 800 acres in Coweta County.
County filings estimate that Project Sail would use about 900 megawatts of electricity and 9 million gallons of water.
The plan calls for 13 buildings, each covering 378,000 square feet.
Nearby residents Quilliam and Wilhemina Barber say they expect the project to change their rural surroundings.
Local opponent Ron Bockrath has helped organize residents, file lawsuits and gather petition signatures.
Opposition to data centres has appeared in debates and town halls ahead of the November 3, 2026 midterm elections.
The article says concern about data centres has united some Democratic and Republican supporters.
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