While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 18
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Yahya Sinwar is the chief architect of the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
PHOTO: AFP
Hamas leader Sinwar is dead, Israel says
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.
His killing by Israeli forces operating in Gaza marks a huge success for Israel and a pivotal event in the year-long war - although there are a number of possible scenarios.
“Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement.
US sanctions Chinese, Russians over attack drones used in Ukraine
The United States on Oct 17 sanctioned two Chinese companies and a Russian affiliate involved in making and shipping attack drones and warned the two countries to halt cooperation boosting the Ukraine war effort.
New sanctions target a Chinese company, Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Co Ltd, that makes the engine powering Russia’s Garpiya series long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, the US Treasury Department said.
The measures also hit China-based Redlepus Vector Industry Shenzhen Co Ltd for its role in the drones’ shipment and an affiliated Russian person and company.
Panel urges Secret Service shake-up after Trump assassination bid
An independent panel called on Oct 17 for a sweeping shake-up of the US Secret Service following its “historic” failure to prevent the July assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump.
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static,” the four members of the bipartisan review panel said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that accompanied their 52-page report.
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” they said, and without reforms another assassination attempt such as the one that took place in Butler, Pennsylvania “can and will happen again.”
UK villagers remember Liam Payne as ‘one of us’
Liam Payne was a global star as a member of the band One Direction but in the central English village of Codsall where his parents live, locals said Oct 17 that he was always “one of us”.
Residents voiced a mixture of shock and sadness a day after the 31-year-old’s death in a fall from a third-floor hotel balcony in Argentina.
“I think everybody’s talking about it because everybody knows Liam. Knows of Liam... because he was one of us. Very sad. Very sad,” Maria Davies, 67, told AFP.
English coaches ‘capable’ of managing national team, says Southampton boss
Southampton boss Russell Martin said Oct 17 that “loads of English coaches are capable” of coaching England after Thomas Tuchel was named as the national team’s new manager.
The German, a former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss, was unveiled on Oct 16 and will start his new job on January 1.
The 51-year-old succeeds Gareth Southgate as permanent coach and becomes the third foreign England manager after Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.
