International
Macron Hosts Tinubu for Private Dinner at Élysée Palace (Photos)
Reaffirming Nigeria-France Ties
French President Emmanuel Macron received Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a private dinner at the Élysée Palace in Paris on Thursday night, in a high-level engagement underscoring the enduring bilateral relationship between the two countries.

The dinner, held on September 17, 2026, was disclosed on Friday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy. In a post on X, Onanuga stated that the meeting reflected “the enduring relationship between Nigeria and France and their shared commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation.” Photographs released from the evening showed Tinubu with Macron and France’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron, in a cordial setting at the presidential palace.

President Tinubu is currently in Europe on a three-week annual leave. He departed Abuja on August 30, 2026, first spending time in London before proceeding to Paris. The private dinner took place during the Paris leg of his vacation and marks another personal interaction between the two leaders.
In related comments, Tinubu described the evening as a pleasure and said the conversation reaffirmed the strong friendship between Nigeria and France as well as their shared commitment to deepening cooperation and building a mutually beneficial partnership. He thanked Macron for his warm hospitality and friendship.

Nigeria and France have maintained active diplomatic and economic engagement in recent years, covering areas such as trade, investment, energy, security cooperation, infrastructure, and critical minerals. The private dinner continues a pattern of direct leader-level contacts that both sides have used to advance practical cooperation beyond formal state visits.
No detailed official readout of specific discussion topics or new agreements was immediately released by either the Élysée Palace or the Nigerian presidency. Such informal encounters have previously helped lay groundwork for subsequent formal engagements between Abuja and Paris.
International
JUST IN: Plane Crash Near Trump’s Florida Home Kills All 9 Aboard
A private Learjet 60 crashed into a residential neighborhood in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, killing all nine people on board, officials confirmed.
The aircraft, flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, went down around 12:50 p.m. local time near Cresthaven/Greenacres, roughly 7–11 kilometers (about 4–7 miles) from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
It struck near a busy roadway at the entrance to a mobile-home community, creating a large fireball and leaving a crater in the road. Debris was scattered across a wide area, and nearby power and water lines were damaged.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the crash a “horrific tragedy” and confirmed there were no survivors among the nine occupants.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the impact as “cataclysmic,” saying it “looked like a missile going down.” No injuries were reported among people on the ground. About 600 residents of a nearby mobile-home park were evacuated.
Trump had been at Mar-a-Lago earlier Sunday but departed on Air Force One from the nearby airport about an hour before the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, with support from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Early reports noted the crew had discussed moderate turbulence and ice shortly before the steep descent.
International
Tens of thousands protest against Narendra Modi regime in Delhi
The protest was one of the largest shows of opposition strength in years, taking place amid a wider resurgence of anti-government dissent which has been systematically crushed over the 12 years of the Modi regime.
Thousands of opposition supporters have gathered in Delhi as protests against the Narendra Modi government continue to gather momentum.
Led by the Congress party, India’s opposition alliance has brought together supporters from across the country, amid growing anger over a large-scale revision of the country’s voter roll that has seen 130 million names erased.
Opposition leaders have alleged the process gives Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) an electoral advantage, and have called for the resignation and impeachment of the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar.
The BJP has denied the claims.
Addressing tens of thousands of party workers and supporters, the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said Kumar had “carried out the biggest crime. He has tried to silence the voice of people, strangulate our country.”
Gandhi said the opposition, united under the acronym India (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), would not let “democracy be finished in the country” and warned Modi: “You can’t run anywhere.”
The protest was one of the largest shows of opposition strength in years, taking place amid a wider resurgence of anti-government dissent which has been systematically crushed over the 12 years of the Modi regime.
The Guardian Uk
International
Survivors recount horrors as Spain mourns 68 dead victims of trains crash
Pablo Mejia, 42, escaped with injuries to his head, telling AFP that a last-minute change of seat saved his life.
• AFP photo showing truck crane operating at the site of a train crash between two high-speed units, a Renfe AVE train and an Iryo train around 150 km south of Madrid between Urda and Los Yebenes in the province of Toledo, on October 28, 2026.
Spain began three days of mourning on Thursday after its second high-speed rail collision this year killed 68 people and injured scores, with relatives desperately seeking news about their loved ones.
The collision happened in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha on Wednesday morning when a service by state operator Renfe ploughed into the back of a stationary train belonging to private Spanish company Iryo.
Emergency services combed through the wreckage at night to find further victims on the key line linking Madrid with the southern city of Seville, hoisting pieces of mangled metal with cranes, AFP reporters saw.
Josimar Medina, a 31-year-old Peruvian who was holidaying in Spain with his girlfriend, said he was sleeping on the Renfe train when “I woke up and I was in the air.”
Pablo Mejia, 42, escaped with injuries to his head, telling AFP that a last-minute change of seat saved his life.
Wearing a bloodstained grey jumper and holding his tattered suitcase, he recounted “a very strong hit… a lot of people on the floor, on top of each other, seats ripped out, suitcases, a lot of chaos”.“I think I’ve been born again,” he said.
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