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Oct 16, 2026 - World

Four people have died and two others have suffered severe burns while battling a wildfire in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in Indonesia's East Java after becoming trapped by thick smoke and fast-moving flames

Oct 16, 2026 - World

Critics of President Donald Trump unloaded on his White House after a new report traced a deadly battlefield decision straight to his doorstep.Reuters reported Thursday that the order to limit Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink service that Ukrainian troops use for drone operations and battlefield communications, came from inside the White House, according to two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said people were killed when interceptor drones relying on the system stopped working. On Wednesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pinned the limits on the U.S. military and "ultimately" the president. A senior U.S. official insisted to Reuters that "no such request was ever made by the president."Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA operations officer, warned the fallout reached far beyond the battlefield."If true, this is a very big deal. Not just in terms of Ukrainian lives that were lost. I'm not sure if people realize that this put the lives of US embassy officials and US citizens at large in Ukraine at great risk," he cautioned on X. "This is madness. The White House did this. I've never seen anything like this in my career. Heads should roll."California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) zeroed in on a possible motive. "How much did Putin pay. And to whom?" he asked.Former Illinois Republican Rep. Joe Walsh didn't hold back in his reaction. "Trump is on Putin's side. Always has been," he fumed. "Trump is actively helping Putin kill Ukrainian men, women, and children." Walsh went on to brand the president a traitor who "should be treated as such."Miles Taylor, who served as Department of Homeland Security chief of staff during Trump's first term, called the revelation "a bigger scandal than Trump's first Ukraine impeachment."The Bulwark's Tim Miller skewered the White House order as "a huge gift from Trump to our ally Russia." His colleague Sam Stein, The Bulwark's managing editor, hailed the report as a "big scoop."MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas argued the order came from the "exact place the orders came from to cover up the Epstein Files, or destroy the Kennedy Center, or chop down the trees at the DC Golf Course."Journalist Michael Weiss summed up his reaction in a single sarcastic word. "Surprise," he quipped.If true, this is a very big deal. Not just in terms of Ukrainian lives that were lost. I’m not sure if people realize that this put the lives of US embassy officials and US citizens at large in Ukraine at great risk. This is madness. The White House did this. I’ve never seen anything like this in my career. Heads should roll. If true…— Marc Polymeropoulos (@Mpolymer) October 16, 2026

Oct 16, 2026 - World

Elon Musk's attempt to pin a deadly battlefield decision on President Donald Trump just got backing from an explosive new report.The directive to throttle Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite service on which Ukrainian troops rely, originated inside the White House, Reuters reported Thursday, citing two U.S. officials and a Western official who had been briefed on the matter.According to officials, Defense Department leaders were sent a message instructing them to slow the service for Ukraine's military. They did not say who in the White House gave the order or who carried it out.The report lands a day after Musk publicly laid the blame at the president's feet. Responding on X Wednesday to former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who had pressed him to lift the speed cap, the SpaceX chief insisted his company wasn't calling the shots."Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS," Musk wrote.The Trump administration pushed back Thursday. Asked about the order, a senior U.S. official told Reuters, "No such request was ever made by the president." The White House didn't answer questions about whether anyone else in the Trump administration was behind it.A senior Ukrainian official told Reuters that Kyiv spent Tuesday and Wednesday calling senior officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon looking for an explanation, and was told that the restriction was a White House decision.The stakes are high. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Piers Morgan Wednesday that people were killed because interceptor drones that depend on Starlink stopped working. Ukrainian officials said the slowdown also hampered strikes on Russian forces and supply lines. A Defense Ministry source told Reuters the receptors are functioning in motion again, but only up to 100 miles per hour.The clampdown came as Trump has leaned on Kyiv to halt its attacks on Russian oil refineries, which he blames for rising energy prices heading into the midterms. At an October 9 meeting in Miami, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff took a hard line with Ukrainian officials over the strikes, according to a person familiar with the matter.Musk himself had backed Trump's pressure campaign just days ago, sharing a clip of the president's warning to Zelenskyy on October 10 with the comment, "Zelensky has gone too far."

Oct 15, 2026 - World

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has campaigned for national unity as advance voting is underway in oil-rich Alberta in a referendum that could set the province on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada

Oct 15, 2026 - World

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned Thursday that the United States is trying to break Canada so it can "own us" as he urged oil-rich Alberta not to begin a process toward separation in Monday's referendum.