Category World News

According to British police, a car was driven into pedestrians and a man was stabbed close to a synagogue in Manchester, northwest England, on Thursday, killing two people and injuring three others.

In response to the attack, which occurred on Yom Kippur, the most holy day of the Jewish calendar, police were dispatched to synagogues across the nation, according to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

What transpired?

Witnesses reported seeing a car being rammed into people walking in Crumpsall, a Manchester suburb, near the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. A man was also reportedly stabbed, according to them.

A member of the public called Greater Manchester Police at 9:31 am (08:31 GMT) to the incident site.

At 9:37 a.m., GMP declared a significant incident. Greater Manchester Police firearms officers fired shots at 9:38 a.m., according to the police.

At 9:41 a.m. (08:41 GMT), paramedics arrived at the scene and treated the public.

The North West Ambulance Service of the National Health Service (NHS) announced in a statement that its personnel had treated patients at the scene and that seriously ill people had been taken to the hospital.

The attack occurred on Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday of atonement, when many people who don’t frequent synagogues go to synagogues to pray and fast.

Where in Manchester was the attack, exactly?

The Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, which is located in Crumpsall, north of Manchester, was the site of the attack.

According to Manchester City Council, there are about 18 000 residents living in Crumpsall. The suburb’s transportation system and bus lines travel 3 miles (5 kilometers) to the city center.

Since 1935, there has been a Jewish congregation in Crumpsall. 1967 saw the completion of the large Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue.

What are the victims’ details known to us?

Three people have been seriously hurt in the attack, according to the police, and two have already died. Their identities have not been made public.

What are the attacker’s details known to us?

The attacker was shot, but police did not reveal who he was.

The Greater Manchester Police posted the phrase “one man has been shot, believed to be the offender.”

The attacker is reportedly dead, according to the police. In an X-post, it stated that “it cannot currently be confirmed due to safety concerns surrounding] his person having suspicious items.”

What has been the government’s response?

Starmer left a meeting with Danish presidents of the European Union early to deal with the incident.

According to Starmer, “we will do everything to keep our Jewish community safe,” adding that additional police forces are already being deployed to synagogues across the nation.

Starmer added, “This is all the more horrific because it took place on Yom Kippur, the most holy day in the Jewish calendar,” in an X post.

In an X-post, Starmer’s Labour Party member of the British parliament wrote: “I’m horrified to learn about this incident at a synagogue I’ve been proud to visit. Everyone affected shares my thoughts with me.

What’s happening right now in the field?

The Greater Manchester Police have urged residents to avoid the area while the officers deal with the situation.

They added that many of the people who had come together to worship in the synagogue were initially confined for safety, but have since been displaced.

Following the attack, the police claimed they had “declared PLATO.” The British police refer to an incident that is being investigated as a Marauding Terrorist Attack (MTA), in which assailants move swiftly through a location, trying to kill or hurt as many people as possible. This does not imply that the incident has been labeled a terrorist attack.

For people to inquire about their loved ones and friends who might have been present at the scene, the police have opened a public portal and a casualty bureau. Additionally, the portal asks those who were injured and are now safe to report it online.

Has the UK experienced any other hate crimes?

Yes . Recently, there have been more instances of anti-Semitism in the UK.

The UK-based Community Security Trust (CST), which promotes the welfare of British Jews, reported 3, 528 anti-Semitism in 2024, which is the second-highest level of anti-Semitism ever to be reported by CST in a single calendar year. In 19% of the cases, synagogues were the subject of damage.

The highest number was recorded in 2023, which included 4 296 incidents.

34 students were ordered to move to the UK on September 17 to begin their education in Gaza. Many of them had submitted their visa applications before I did mine. I still felt peace and joy when I learned their exit. Finally, they were secure and on their way to new beginnings. I maintained my upbeat spirits, anticipating the start of my turn. However, I was shocked to find that there were 17 more names on the list, but mine wasn’t one of them when the next evacuation list arrived on September 29.

This mystery is also affecting me, too. I am aware of at least eight other students in Gaza who have been accepted into prestigious universities for higher education in the UK, but they haven’t been listed as eligible for evacuation despite meeting the requirements set forth by the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) for the visas they have received.

Our fully funded scholarships at renowned UK universities are now in danger due to unreliable and inconsistent delays in the evacuation process and not because our institutions failed to represent us. On September 29, my University of Birmingham program officially began. My place has already been fully secured thanks to a Sanctuary Scholarship, which covers tuition, living expenses, and other expenses. I’m still a prisoner of war in Gaza and await confirmation that it never arrives.

I reacted with cheer when the first cohort left. I urged myself and the other students who had been mysteriously excluded from the evacuation list to be wary of comparison and desperation. The turn would be for everyone. After months of waiting, applications, interviews, and almost constant fear, the evacuation process finally arrived. Then, with only 17 names on the list, the next list arrived. None of the early applicants who were still waiting, in my opinion, were on it. Students who had submitted their visa applications weeks after we were contacted were also contacted. Some had already applied days before they were evacuated.

In case the government’s email arrives, I check my phone every day and night and sleep with it on my pillow. My university, my MP, and my lawyer have assured me that I am indeed eligible because I meet all the requirements, have filled out all the forms, and passed all the hurdles. The Foreign, Commonwealth, Development Office (FCDO) and the Home Office have received the same documents more than once. My accommodation has been reserved and I’m waiting for my arrival. My funding is guaranteed. No unresolved questions or missing paperwork are present. I wait, though.

There might be additional evacuation waves. However, there will undoubtedly be fewer names on each new list. There is no longer a long wait between me and my fellow students. The chance of our futures and scholarships disappearing increases with each passing day.

How the names are being included has been revealed in this ordeal, which is deeply troubling. Why did applicants come in later than we did prioritized? Why are some applications processed so quickly that some people’s names are listed on an evacuation list a few days after submitting the forms? Why do other applications, like mine, seem to have been forgotten? Why am I uninformed despite meeting every prerequisite?

Nobody can respond to these inquiries, not even the MPs, MPs, or even the attorneys who are the best at explaining the procedures. I’m left to wonder if I’m being put further back in the queue each time because the procedure is opaque. Every student who is still waiting to see their names on that crucial list is in my greatest fear, and that the same pattern will continue to be present: every new wave will prioritize new applicants while we are indefinitely delayed. Without explanation or accountability, we are relegated to a process we are unable to comprehend or challenge.

The psychological strain of this limbo is difficult to quantify. The same routine is followed every morning: check the inbox, check the email, and check the phone. Nothing . While I wait in the dark and put my dreams on hold, friends from abroad update me about lectures beginning. In case someone finally remembers me while I sleep, the phone beside me ends the night in the same manner. Here, there are a lot of disappointment, disappointment, and despair in the air. Every delay is a step closer to losing my place and the opportunity to continue my education abroad, far from the war, than just a lost day. The only way out of this difficult reality and the only way to rebuild ourselves and repair the broken parts of ourselves is for many of us, not just a delay, but a slow erasure of our future.

The University of Birmingham has remained committed to me and repeatedly contacted relevant authorities in my name. However, there is only so much that the university can do. The consequences will be devastating if I can’t leave right away. These awards are perpetual. Missing the academic year’s start could mean completely losing the funding. My place will be given away if I don’t arrive on time because my housing has already been secured and paid for. These are competitively priced degrees offered by renowned universities. I competed with international competitors for this position for years while being under siege and bombardment. It would be devastating to lose it right now as a result of bureaucratic silence. I received the Sanctuary Scholarship, along with other initiatives like it, to demonstrate my solidarity and demonstrate that those living in conflict can get a lifeline through education.

I don’t request any special treatment. Simply put, I request that my visa be processed. I’ve submitted every document and requested item. The criteria used to determine who gets evacuated are opaque, which is what I lack. Why are some students in the queue advanced while others are ignored despite having the same circumstances? Without any solutions, I feel sluggish and worn out. And I worry that my future will be wiped out if I don’t take action right away.

The end of the world has already arrived. I was informed in my most recent correspondence with the university that if I don’t arrive by the 17th of this month, I’ll lose the place I’ve worked so hard for and, along with it, the future I’ve fought for through war, loss, and sacrifice. I ask those with the power to act, in the face of all the threats, to refrain from silently destroying our futures.

A Forever War is a potent investigation into the Gaza war, which raises questions about Israel’s response to the Hamas-led bombings of October 2023.

More than 100 years after German colonial powers robbed them, a Tanzanian family tries to reclaim the remains of their ancestors.

In 2013, then-businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump shared his vision on Fox News about the role a United States president should play in a government shutdown: “You have to be nice and be angry and be wild and cajole and do all sorts of things, but you have to get a deal.”

Now, as president, Trump has taken a different approach. After failing to reach a bipartisan agreement, he mocked Democrats by posting an expletive-laced video generated by artificial intelligence and set to mariachi music, falsely showing US Representative Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and US Senator Chuck Schumer saying that “nobody likes Democrats any more”, so the party is seeking favour with “illegal aliens”.

Welcome to the 2025 US government shutdown.

At PolitiFact, we have fact-checked lawmakers’ and pundits’ statements about government shutdowns for more than a decade. When Congress can’t reach a funding agreement, both sides of the political aisle whip up talking points about what a shutdown means for the economy, immigration, worker paycheques, disaster response and services for low-income families. The blame is nearly always placed on the other party.

A reminder: Republicans control the presidency and both chambers of Congress. But passing legislation to extend government funding at current levels would require, under longstanding rules, more than half a dozen Democrats to side with Republicans in order to reach the 60-vote threshold to advance to a vote. This gives Democrats some negotiating leverage, which they are seeking to use in the spending fight.

Social services

Women, Infants, and Children programme will ‘not be funded’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, in September 29 remarks to reporters.

Johnson omits that enrollees will still likely get services, at least initially. But much depends on how long the shutdown lasts.

The Agriculture Department’s shutdown plan said its Women, Infants and Children nutrition programme, which provides food to low-income families, shall continue operations “subject to the availability of funding”. The WIC has 6.9 million participants.

WIC should be able to continue for at least one week, said Alison Hard, National WIC Association policy director. After that, operations will vary by state, depending on their funds.

During a shutdown, state WIC programmes have options to temporarily fill the funding gap, including various USDA sources, state money and requesting early rebate payments from their contracted infant formula manufacturers.

Past shutdowns

‘Back in 2013, Trump said it was the President’s job to negotiate and avoid a shutdown’

Senator Jeff Merkley, in a September 29 X post

That’s an accurate paraphrase of Trump’s remarks.

In an October 7, 2013, interview with then-Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, Trump criticised then-President Barack Obama for not being a dealmaker during the shutdown. In full, he said: “You have to get everybody in a room. You have to be a leader. The president has to lead. He has to get [the Speaker of the House] and everybody else in a room, and they have to make a deal. You have to be nice and be angry and be wild and cajole and do all sorts of things, but you have to get a deal.”

Trump made similar remarks in a September 2013 Fox & Friends phone interview: “Problems start from the top, and they have to get solved from the top, and the president’s the leader, and he’s got to get everybody in a room, and he’s got to lead.”

Healthcare

Republicans are spiking health insurance premiums by 75 percent for everyday Americans if they don’t extend enhanced ACA subsidies

Representative Katherine Clark, in a September 12 X post.

This is mostly true.

If the Republican-controlled Congress does not extend Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies before they expire at the end of this year, enrollees will have to pay more.

A KFF analysis of federal data found that the average increase in out-of-pocket coverage cost for enrollees would be 79 percent, with state-by-state average increases ranging from 49 percent to 195 percent.

This cost increase would come from a combination of insurance premium increases and the disappearance of subsidies, rather than from “spiking health insurance premiums” alone.

More than two weeks after Clark’s statement – and after we published the fact check – KFF produced a revised figure for average increases based on new data: 114 percent.

‘Democrats so-called proposal is a partisan wish list with a $1.5 trillion spending increase tacked onto a four-week funding bill’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, in a September 29 news release.

The Republican talking point misses the context of the Democrats’ proposal.

The September 17 Democratic proposal latches government funding up until October 31, known as a “continuing resolution”, to some Democratic priorities, including healthcare assistance and limiting Trump’s ability to claw back funds previously approved by Congress.

The bill calls for permanently extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that were passed in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and extended in 2022. Those are set to expire on December 31 this year. The Democratic bill would also reverse cuts to Medicaid and other health programmes that Republicans enacted in their signature tax and spending legislation.

The Democrats’ measure would restore funding for public broadcasting that Republicans nixed in July and includes at least $320m for security for lawmakers, the executive branch and the Supreme Court. (Republicans have proposed $88m in security funding in their resolution bill.)

The bill also contains mandates for how the Trump administration can spend money and would hinder the White House’s recent attempt to cancel almost $5bn in foreign aid.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a group that’s hawkish on the deficit, said in a September 18 news release that Democrats’ proposal in its entirety would add $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

“The [continuing resolution] itself – the part that funds the government – would not add $1.5 trillion to the debt, but the bill that Democrats have proposed includes other provisions that would,” Chris Towner, the group’s policy director, wrote in an email. “The bill repeals the health spending cuts that were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would cost about $1.1 trillion over a decade to repeal.”

Towner also said the Democrats’ provision to make the enhanced ACA subsidies permanent would cost about $350bn over a decade.

If enhanced subsidies are not extended, people with insurance through the Affordable Care Act will see their premiums rise ‘twice as much in the rural areas’

Senator Amy Klobuchar, in a September 28 interview on CBS’s Face the Nation

This is mostly true.

There are at least two ways to interpret Klobuchar’s statement: that she was comparing rural enrollees’ costs with people living elsewhere, or comparing their costs with what they paid before.

Klobuchar’s office told PolitiFact that the senator was referring to rural enrollees seeing increases that were double what they had paid before, and that interpretation aligns with what Klobuchar has said in other settings.

An analysis by the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, found that out-of-pocket insurance costs would increase on average in rural counties from $713 to $1,473 – a 107 percent increase, or slightly more than a doubling.

Comparing rural enrollees’ cost increases with people elsewhere, it amounts to a disproportionately large increase for rural areas, but it’s not twice as much.

Enrollees in rural counties would see average out-of-pocket losses of $760 from expiring enhanced subsidies, compared with $624 for all counties and $593 for urban counties. That’s 22 percent more for rural enrollees compared with all others, and 28 percent more compared with urban enrollees.

Government workers

‘If the government shuts down, members of Congress still get paid. The janitors never get paid’

Daniel Koh, on The People’s Cabinet podcast episode, September 29.

This is mostly true.

Members of the House and Senate continue to get paid during a shutdown. Federal law says federal employees get back pay, but the law does not extend to contractors, a group that includes many janitors. Some private employers with federal contracts may find ways to pay their employees, but there is nothing in federal law that requires it.

‘FEMA won’t be funded’ during hurricane season because of the shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson, in September 29 remarks to reporters

Johnson was correct that Congress had not agreed on Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding, but a Department of Homeland Security shutdown procedures plan estimates that 84 percent of FEMA employees will continue working. (The DHS oversees FEMA.)

“Bottom line: hurricanes don’t care about politics. FEMA will still respond. But recovery will stall if Congress can’t do its job,” said Craig Fugate, who led FEMA during President Barack Obama’s administration after leading Florida’s emergency management under then-Republican Governor Jeb Bush. “This isn’t new – both parties own the blame.”

The agency’s recovery efforts are most at risk, Fugate said, because they depend on how much money remains in the Disaster Relief Fund. “Those dollars aren’t tied to the shutdown, but they usually run low this time of year. Normally, Congress passes a continuing resolution to add money. A shutdown means that doesn’t happen. That slows recovery projects, not the immediate response.”