Ken Jacobs, mainstay of New York’s underground film culture, dies aged 92

Experimental film-maker’s works included Little Stabs at Happiness, Blonde Cobra, and Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son

Renowned experimental film-maker Ken Jacobs, whose works such as Little Stabs at Happiness, Blonde Cobra and Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son made him a key member of the underground film circuit of the 1960s, has died aged 92. His son Azazel Jacobs, also a film-maker, told the New York Times that he died of kidney failure in hospital on Sunday.

Described by the New York Times as “the éminence grise of the American avant garde”, Jacobs and his wife Flo, with whom he collaborated on much of his work, straddled the worlds of experimental art and American new wave film-making, along with the likes of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and Jonas Mekas. He was a founding member of New York’s Film-Makers’ Co-Operative and the first director of the Millennium Film Workshop in 1966, both of which offered a space for film-makers working outside the mainstream and which are still operating today.

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Macron under pressure to call snap parliamentary elections or resign

French president’s former allies join opponents in demanding he act to end a spiralling political crisis

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is under intense pressure to call snap parliamentary elections or resign as former allies join his opponents in demanding he act to end a spiralling political crisis in the EU’s second biggest economy.

Macron’s first prime minister on Tuesday urged the president to step down amid mounting frustration even within the president’s own camp over one of the worst spells of political chaos in France since the foundation of its Fifth Republic in 1958.

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Human error caused crash that killed record-breaking skydiver Felix Baumgartner

  • Austrian was killed in paragliding accident in July

  • 56-year-old broke sound barrier during 2012 jump

The paragliding crash that killed extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner in July was caused by human error, an investigating prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Baumgartner, the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound, died in July along Italy’s Adriatic coast. He was 56. Witnesses said the flight appeared normal until Baumgartner’s paraglider started spinning to the ground, crashing near a hotel swimming pool.

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Diplomacy’s lowest point: how the Israel-Gaza conflict was mishandled

In two years there have been many versions of a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza and many obstacles to overcome

George Mitchell, the great US advocate for the Northern Ireland peace agreement, described diplomacy as 700 days of failure and one of success. In Gaza, tragically, there have been 730 days of failure and none of success. Indeed, the destruction, the death toll and the spillover of the conflict into other countries is a monument to shame diplomacy and what remains of international law. Arguably, it is the profession’s lowest point since 1939.

Some will claim failure is inevitable since this conflict is now so embedded and impervious to compromise that it can only be settled at the barrel of the gun, in essence through the repression or erasure of one side.

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Pope Leo to visit Turkey and Lebanon on first overseas trip

Pontiff expected to appeal for peace across the Middle East and speak about the persecution of Christians in region

Pope Leo’s debut overseas trip will be to Turkey and Lebanon, where he is expected to make appeals for peace across the Middle East, the Vatican has announced.

Leo, who was elected pontiff in May after the death of Pope Francis, will visit Turkey between 27 and 30 November and Lebanon from 30 November until 2 December.

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Indonesia school collapse: search for victims ends as 67 confirmed dead

Grief and confusion gripped East Java last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny Islamic school to collapse during afternoon prayers

Indonesian rescuers wrapped up the search on Tuesday for victims trapped under the rubble of a collapsed Islamic boarding school in the province of East Java, after retrieving more than 60 bodies, disaster authorities said.

Grief and confusion gripped the small town of Sidoarjo last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny school to cave in on hundreds of people, mostly teenage boys, while they were at afternoon prayers. Most escaped.

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No air traffic control crew at busy LA airport amid government shutdown staffing crunch

Air traffic to the Hollywood Burbank Airport would be remotely managed for six hours on Monday night causing delays for travellers

Hollywood Burbank Airport in Los Angeles will have no air traffic control staff for nearly six hours on Monday evening, as the effects of the US government shutdown rippled across the country.

From 4.15pm until 10pm the Federal Aviation Administration anticipates there will be no air traffic controllers in their tower, although the FAA has said it is trying to bring in staffing sooner than that, according to ABC News.

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Judge killed in courtroom shooting in Albania

Man opens fire in Tirana court, killing judge and injuring two other people, and is arrested after fleeing scene

A man on trial opened fire in a courtroom in the Albanian capital, Tirana, killing the judge and injuring two other people, police have said.

The judge, Astrit Kalaja, was presiding during a hearing at the court of appeal on Monday when the man opened fire, police said, adding that the shooter was promptly arrested. “The judge was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries on the way,” a police statement said.

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Brazil’s president asks US to scrap tariffs in ‘friendly’ call with Trump

Presidents spoke on a video call as expert speculates that Haiti could be an area where the two leaders can cooperate

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has urged Donald Trump to scrap tariffs on his country’s imports and sanctions against its officials, as the two men held what the Brazilian presidency called a “friendly” video call, swapping phone numbers after months of friction.

Ties between the US and Brazil have nosedived as a result of Trump’s campaign to pressure Brazilian authorities into abandoning the coup trial of his far-right ally, Jair Bolsonaro.

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France is in crisis but bond markets leave other governments at risk of meltdown too

Investors rattled by resignation of French PM but country is not alone in trying to grapple with political maths

Sébastien Lecornu’s abrupt resignation as the French prime minister on Monday after less than a month in the role marked the latest clash between France’s stretched public finances and its polarised politics.

Lecornu was the latest prime minister to try and fail to cobble together a package of spending cuts and tax rises that would pass muster in a parliament without a clear majority, and contain mounting bond market pressures.

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Judge blocks Trump’s bid to deploy national guard to Oregon – US politics live

Ruling by US District Judge Karin Immergut blocks any deployment to Portland for two weeks as legal wrangling continues

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, accused Democrats of being “not serious” in negotiations to end the federal government shutdown, while the Democratic leader accused Republicans of driving the shutdown, now on its fifth day and expected to last at least through next week.

Talks between the opposing political parties stalled over the weekend, with no votes anticipated to end the standoff. A CBS poll found just 28% of Democratic voters and 23% of Republicans consider their party’s positions worth shutting down the government.

How could bringing in federalised national guard from California not be in direct contravention of the [decision] I issued yesterday?

At the direction of the president, approximately 200 federalized members of the California national guard are being reassigned from duty in the greater Los Angeles area to Portland, Oregon to support US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal personnel performing official duties, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property.

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Lecornu bemoans lack of compromise across political spectrum as he resigns as French PM – Europe live

Departure after less than a month follows fierce criticism of Macron’s new cabinet

Lecornu’s resignation means that Macron has three possible courses of action and all of them are hazardous, notes Mujtaba Rahman, the managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group.

In an analyst note, Rahman writes:

He can appoint a new prime minister, possibly a senior non-political figure or technocrat, to try to push through a budget for next year to cut France’s ballooning budget deficit.

He can call a new parliamentary election.

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Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin withdraws from Irish presidential race

Election becomes unpredictable two-horse contest after political novice quits over debt revelations

One of the three main candidates in Ireland’s presidential election has quit the race in a bombshell announcement that has upended the contest.

Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin withdrew on Sunday night after revelations about an unpaid debt to a former tenant, turning the election into an unpredictable two-horse race between a centre-right former government minister and an independent leftwing member of parliament.

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Eswatini confirms arrival of 10 more people as part of US deportation deal

African kingdom receives second group of third-country nationals in what NGOs and lawyers say is violation of human rights

Ten people deported by the US have arrived in Eswatini, its government said, the second group of third-country deportees to be sent to the southern African kingdom by the Trump administration in what lawyers and NGOs have described as violations of their human rights.

A statement by the Eswatini government posted on social media before their arrival on Monday said: “The individuals will be kept in a secured area separate from the public, while arrangements are made for their return to their countries of origin.”

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Nobel prize in medicine awarded to scientists for immune system research

Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi worked on how the immune system can be prevented from harming the body

The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2025 has been awarded to three scientists for their work on how the immune system is kept in check and prevented from attacking our own body.

Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi have been awarded the prize “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance”.

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Mount Everest hikers describe ‘extreme’ conditions as huge rescue effort continues

At least 200 people still stranded after unseasonally heavy snowfall during China’s Golden Week holiday

Trekkers have described facing “extreme” conditions after an unseasonable snowstorm during one of China’s busiest holiday weekends stranded hundreds of people on Mount Everest, prompting a massive rescue effort.

Chinese authorities said about 350 people had made their way down but at least 200 remained stranded at the Everest Scenic Area, to the east of the mountain, on the Tibetan side of the border.

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Nearly a third of bosses report increase in cyber-attacks on their supply chains

CIPS survey shows cyber threats have risen up the list of concerns for procurement managers

Almost a third of bosses have reported an increase in cyber-attacks on their supply chains over the past six months, as the fallout from devastating hacks on corporate stalwarts including Jaguar Land Rover highlighted a growing threat to businesses.

Cyber threats have risen up the list of concerns for procurement managers at hundreds of companies worldwide across industries including manufacturing, energy and technology, according to a survey conducted in September by industry body the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (Cips).

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Gaza flotilla passengers allege poor conditions in detention as Israel prepares to deport dozens of activists

Families of some aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla say they are being held without access to clean water or legal representation

Activists from New Zealand detained in Israel after they were removed from vessels carrying aid to Gaza are being held in poor conditions without access to water and legal representation, their families have said, as dozens more passengers from the Global Sumud Flotilla were set to be deported.

Rana Hamida, Youssef Sammour and Samuel Leason were among 437 activists, parliamentarians and lawyers travelling aboard the flotilla, a coalition of more than 40 vessels carrying humanitarian aid whose goal was to breach Israel’s 16-year maritime blockade of Gaza.

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Louis CK defends decision to perform at Riyadh comedy festival as ‘a good opportunity’

Comedian admits to mixed feelings but says event is a ‘positive thing’ despite human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia

Louis CK has defended his decision to perform at the Riyadh comedy festival in Saudi Arabia after fellow comedians criticised the big names taking part as whitewashing a regime guilty of human rights abuses.

Speaking on Real Time With Bill Maher, CK, who is co-headlining the festival with the British comedian Jimmy Carr on Monday night local time, said other comedians had been “really surprised” by the response from audiences in Riyadh so far.

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US struck another boat illegally carrying drugs off Venezuela coast, Trump says

President said US would turn attention to drug trafficking happening on land during speech at navy ceremony

US forces on Saturday evening struck another vessel illegally carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Donald Trump said on Sunday to thousands of sailors at a ceremony celebrating the US navy’s 250th anniversary. He added that the US would also start looking at drug trafficking happening on land.

Trump made the comment during a speech at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, next to the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier. It was not immediately clear if he was referencing a strike announced on Friday by defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

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