While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 31, 2025
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King Charles' brother, Andrew, will now be known as simply Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and will live in private accommodation in eastern England.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Britain’s King strips brother of prince title, mansion
Britain’s King Charles has stripped his younger brother Andrew of his title of prince and forced him out of his Windsor home, Buckingham Palace said on Oct 30, seeking to distance the royals from him over his links to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Andrew, 65, the younger brother of Charles and second son of the late Queen Elizabeth, has come under mounting pressure in recent years over his behaviour and his ties to the late sex offender Epstein.
Earlier this month, he was forced to stop using his title of Duke of York.
Charles has now escalated his actions against Andrew by stripping him of all his titles, leaving him to be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
Does Germany not see ‘genocide’ in Gaza, Erdogan asks
PHOTO: AFP
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan criticised Germany over what he said was its ignorance of Israel’s “genocide” and attacks in Gaza, at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Oct 30.
Open public friction emerged between the Nato allies on Mr Merz’s first visit to Turkey since taking office.
Mr Merz said his government had stood by Israel since the Oct 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and that he believes Israel was exercising its right to self-defence.
Families cluster at Rio morgue after deadly police raids
PHOTO: REUTERS
Families lined up at a morgue on Oct 30 in Rio de Janeiro to identify relatives killed in Brazil’s deadliest ever police raids, and funerals began to take place for four police officers who died taking part in the operation.
Authorities have said at least 121 people died, including the officers, in the Oct 28 raids targeting the Comando Vermelho gang that controls the drug trade in several favelas - poor, densely populated neighbourhoods woven through the city’s hilly terrain.
Mr Victor Santos, Rio state security secretary, denied there was any connection between the raids and the global events Rio will host next week tied to the UN’s COP30 climate negotiations.
Hate-crime trial shines light on far-right ‘fitness clubs’
PHOTO: X/AKTIVKLUBB
Four men went on trial on Oct 30 in Sweden accused of hate crimes and attacking immigrants in a case that has revealed the growing trend of white supremacists banding together in fitness clubs.
Prosecutors say the four suspects were members of an “Active Club” – loosely structured groups that meet in gyms and aim to promote white nationalist ideology.
The four men who went on trial on Oct 30, all in their 20s, are accused of beating up immigrants in central Stockholm just after midnight on Aug 27.
Beyond words: ‘67’ crowned Word of the Year
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/SKRILLA
A double-digit combination set the social media sphere ablaze among teens in 2025, leaving parents and teachers befuddled – and now it has officially been crowned Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year: 67.
But even the organisation that unveiled the winning word – pronounced “six-seven” and never “sixty-seven” – admitted it was not exactly sure about its meaning.
Dictionary.com said the origin of the word might be traced to Doot Doot (6 7), a song by the US rapper Skrilla (above).
