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Global News Wire

Fresh headlines and publisher-supplied excerpts from Kenya, Africa and the world—collected in one transparent, attributed briefing.

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The Straits Times

Venezuela's Maduro to face new US charges over alleged torture of Americans, official says

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 - Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are expected to face new criminal charges in the US over the alleged torture of Americans held in the South American country, a US official said on Wednesday.The new charges could come as soon as Thursday, according to the official, who was briefed on the investigation.Maduro and Flores were captured by the US military from their homes in Caracas on January 3 and brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. They have pleaded not guilty.A spokesperson for the Manhattan US Attorney's office, which brought the charges, declined to comment.Lawyers for Maduro and Flores did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Details of the new charges, including the identities of the alleged torture victims, were not immediately available.Maduro's 13 years in power in oil-rich Venezuela were marked by tensions with the United States. Washington said that several of its citizens were wrongfully detained in the South American country during his tenure.Venezuela has been led since Maduro's capture by his former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who has increased cooperation with the Trump administration. REUTERS

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Kahawa Tungu

Spanish pensioner whose eviction sparked nationwide protests dies, union says

An elderly woman whose eviction sparked nationwide protests over Spain’s housing crisis and a political row that triggered early elections has died, according to Madrid’s tenants union.Maricarmen Abascal, 87, was forcibly removed on a stretcher from her apartment of more than 70 years on 23 September after she was unable to afford rent increases.The company that owned the flat later offered to allow her to return at a lower rent rate – but she wasn’t able to sign an agreement as she had been admitted to hospital.“We regret to announce that Maricarmen passed away today,” the Madrid Tenants’ Union said in a statement, adding that her situation marked “a turning point in the history of this country”.A legal glitch allowed her landlord to raise her rent from €500 (£428; $572) to €2,650. It was later lowered to €1,650 – still €300 more than her monthly pension.This put pressure on the coalition government to approve emergency housing legislation – but it was later rejected in Congress.Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in cities across the country over the weekend following the rejection of the proposed measures.Referring to the rejected bills, the Madrid Tenants’ Union said: “While a historic agreement was reached that would have allowed her to return to her home, this solution has come too late. An absolutely avoidable situation after a torturing process.”It said the events surrounding her eviction represented a turning point in the country’s history, but added that the cost to get to this point had been “too high”.It added: “Above all, we will fulfil what she always asked of us: ‘fight, keep fighting for what is yours.'”Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said: “All my love goes to Maricarmen’s family and loved ones. “A hug as well to everyone who today feels this loss as their own.”Following the announcement of Abascal’s death, protesters gathered at one of Madrid’s main squares, Puerta del Sol, which has become a protest encampment for many days.Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel

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Al Jazeera

US Republicans, independents express low trust in election integrity: Poll

A Gallup survey highlights a deep – and historic – partisan divide over confidence in the country’s elections.With less than a month to go before the United States’ pivotal midterms, a new survey found that most independent voters and supporters of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party do not believe the elections will be honest.Polling from Gallup, released on Wednesday, found 37 percent of Republicans and 35 percent of independents have confidence in the country’s electoral system, significantly lower than US Democrats (63 percent).Overall, 49 percent of Americans said they were confident in the honesty of elections, while 51 percent said they were not. Those figures are unchanged from the country’s last midterm election in 2022.This “marks a change from 2025, the first year of Trump’s second term, when confidence was nominally higher among approvers (51 percent) than disapprovers (45 percent)”, Gallup wrote in a statement highlighting the results of the survey.The numbers highlight a deep, historic partisan divide over confidence in US elections.“Since 2025 and Trump’s return to the White House, the relationship between leadership approval and confidence in elections has disappeared,” Gallup wrote.Gallup said that the US is the only country out of more than 100 polled annually over the past 15 years to show this pattern – trust in US election integrity is markedly higher among those who disapprove of the country’s leadership under Trump (52 percent) than those who approve (41 percent).In more than 100 countries where the polling organisation tracks views of national leadership and confidence in elections, people who approve of their governments have generally been more likely to trust their country’s elections.In 2025, 70 percent of people globally who approved of their national leadership expressed confidence in the honesty of their elections, compared with 30 percent among those who disapproved.“The current US pattern is highly unusual compared with the rest of the world,” Gallup wrote.Under former US President Joe Biden, 81 percent of Americans who approved of the government expressed confidence in elections, compared with just 30 percent of those who disapproved, according to Gallup.Gallup said the unusual divide could have implications for the November elections, raising questions about whether some voters will view the results as legitimate.

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The Straits Times

Saudi Arabia says three dead at airports after Houthis claim attacks

Houthi fighters riding in a pickup truck on a street in Sana'a, Yemen, on Oct 7.RIYADH - Saudi authorities said on Oct 7 that three people were killed in attacks on two of the kingdom’s international airports including in the capital Riyadh, after Yemen’s Houthis claimed to have fired on both transport hubs.The Iran-backed fighters earlier took responsibility for a flurry of attacks that included firing a ballistic missile at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport as the conflict deepens with Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen’s government.“On Tuesday and Wednesday... Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport were subjected to attacks targeting their facilities,” the kingdom’s civil aviation authority said in a statement, without blaming anyone for the attacks.An Egyptian and an Algerian national were killed at Abha airport and a Sudanese national was killed at the airport in Riyadh, the agency said, with 36 people wounded in the attacks.The Saudi-led coalition that backs pro-government forces in Yemen said on X that it “destroyed the ballistic missile launch platform” used in the attack on Riyadh.The Yemeni group, which controls most of the country’s north-west, is battling for territory against the Saudi-backed forces after the civil war reignited in July and it captured swathes of coastal land.The fighting has displaced more than 200,000 people within the country, the United Nations said on Oct 7.Yemen’s internationally recognised government this week declared a major counter-offensive and claims to have pushed Houthi fighters out of strategic areas on the Red Sea and the port city of Mokha.But the Iran-backed Houthis say they are holding their territory, and military sources from both sides contacted by AFP have not reported any major changes on the ground.Claims by the warring parties have been impossible to independently verify with the situation moving fast and access for journalists difficult.“Our armed forces have just targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile. The strike was accurate, by God’s grace, and led to a disruption of air traffic,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Oct 7 in a post on X.The Saudi-led military coalition that backs Yemen’s government had said the missile was intercepted.In a separate post, the Houthis also said they targeted a military supply convoy near the airport in the Yemeni city of Aden, the interim capital for the government.The Yemeni government’s Saba news agency reported missiles and drones targeting that airport.The agency cited transport authorities as saying one of the missiles landed near the runway minutes before the scheduled arrival of a flight from Cairo, which was forced to divert to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.Houthi drones and missiles also targeted Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport and King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, spokesman Saree said, claiming they had “hit their targets accurately”.It is the second time this week that the Houthis claimed to have attacked the main airport in the Saudi capital.It is facing frequent temporary closures of its airspace, according to tracking website Flightradar24.Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has been fighting the Houthis since 2015, and is now trying to roll back the group’s latest advance.On Oct 5, the coalition said it was providing air support for the counter-offensive launched by the Yemeni government forces.After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen’s civil war re-erupted in July. In September, the Houthis seized the entire western coastline along the Red Sea in the country’s deadliest fighting in years.On Oct 7, new clashes in Yemen’s west left at least 62 combatants dead, including 37 Houthis, military sources from both camps told AFP.The government’s Saba news agency also said the Houthis fired a missile at the city of Taiz, which is held by government forces, wounding five civilians.“We went out into the street to check on the wounded and saw young civilians who had been hit. The Houthi shell landed in the middle of the street, right in an area crowded with civilians,” Taiz resident Al-Fateh al-Eisaei told AFP.Yemen’s government has announced a goal of retaking all Houthi territory – home to most of the country’s population, and much of it held for more than a decade.The humanitarian crisis caused by the war has left most of the nation’s population dependent on aid.Mohammed, a 33-year-old charity worker who fled from Mocha to Aden, told AFP on Oct 6 that “people there are terrified” of the Houthis.

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France 24

Evicted pensioner who sparked Spain housing protests dies: tenant union

Maricarmen ​Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction sparked housing ​protests in Spain, has died, Madrid's tenants' union said on Wednesday. Abascal's eviction sparked a series of ​protests ‌across Spain in the past couple ⁠of weeks, including activists camping on one of Madrid's main ‌squares, and calls for tackling a ⁠mounting housing crisis. FRANCE 24's Sarah Morris reports from Madrid.

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Al Jazeera

Democratic FCC member warns of AI robocall misinformation risks in US

FCC commissioner warns against AI robocalls, citing risks of misinformation before crucial midterm elections.Anna Gomez, the Democratic member of the United States Federal Communications Commission, has urged the federal agency not to allow robocalls generated with artificial intelligence in the lead-up to the midterm elections in early November.On Wednesday, the commissioner pushed back against a petition from Club for Growth, a national conservative fiscal policy organisation, to allow AI-generated robocalls.The petition, filed on August 31, requested that the federal agency allow political groups to make automated phone calls to people without their prior permission. The group said it would limit calls so that the same person would not receive more than three calls over the course of 30 days and would be presented with the option to opt out.The FCC’s public comment period began on September 4, with the deadline for comments on Monday. Responses to those comments are due October 19, and the FCC has yet to decide whether it will approve the request.Robocalls have been used in political campaigns for years. The FCC prohibits such calls to cellphones and pagers without the called party’s prior express consent, but they are permitted to landlines.The concern with the use of AI is that it can sound like a real person and make it easier to impersonate someone. On the back of a rising number of scams using the technology, the FCC, in February 2024, banned it, saying, “this action now makes the act of using AI to generate the voice in these robocalls itself illegal.”“[If] the FCC allows a dark money group to flood Americans’ phones with AI-generated robocalls they never agreed to receive, it would bring chaos so close to Election Day,” commissioner Gomez told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.She told The Associated Press that removing the FCC’s consent requirement could lead to a rise in unwanted robocalls and misinformation.The concerns are not unfounded. In advance of the 2024 New Hampshire primary, voters received a robocall featuring an AI-generated version in the voice of President Joe Biden, the Democrat incumbent, telling them not to vote.The FCC said that political consultant Steve Kramer, who was working for long-shot primary challenger Dean Phillips, was responsible and could face $6m in fines. He was later acquitted of voter suppression charges.At the state level, Louisiana, Tennessee and Vermont passed laws this year requiring disclosures for AI-generated campaign phone calls. More broadly, 25 states have passed laws concerning the use of AI-generated materials in elections since 2019.Concerns about AI robocalls underscore broader concerns about AI in the run-up to the midterm elections.According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 57 percent of registered voters said that the administration of US President Donald Trump has not taken the risks of AI seriously enough, with 54 percent saying the same about congressional leadership.Late last month, the White House convened leaders from leading AI companies, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and Google, to sign a voluntary pact in which the companies agreed to put more safeguards in place around the development of their most advanced AI systems. Its non-compulsory nature has not appeased critics.“The White House Accord on Super Intelligence is ‘morally binding’ only, allowing AI companies to design their own controls, select their own evaluators, and determine whether their own procedures are being followed,” Tom Wheeler, visiting fellow in governance studies with Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) at the think tank Brookings Institution, wrote about the decision.“History suggests voluntary commitments from these companies are unreliable, as Facebook, Google, and Twitter have all walked back or violated previous self-imposed standards.”

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Google News — Entertainment

Doomscrolling too much? Try these tips to put the phone down and plug into real life

Doomscrolling too much? Try these tips to put the phone down and plug into real life NPR118 Things to Do Instead of Doomscrolling. Including “put to... Kottke.orgPeople Who Spend A Little Too Much Time Scrolling Usually Start Losing The Energy To Do 6 Everyday Things YourTangoHow to break free from scrolling addiction: Proven strategies to reclaim your time IOL3 Strategies That Helped Me Stop Doomscrolling and 2 That Didn’t Her Campus

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Google News — Health

Exercise Tied to Long-Term Cognitive, Motor Benefits in PD

Exercise Tied to Long-Term Cognitive, Motor Benefits in PD MedscapePortrait of Parkinson’s ASU NewsGreater physical activity associated with slower progression in Parkinson’s | Newswise NewswiseExercise can boost balance and quality of life for people living with Parkinson’s KRCGArm and hand exercises may ease tremor, improve grip in Parkinson’s Parkinson's News Today

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