News

Just 100 days ago, Cristiano Ronaldo proclaimed, “I’m back,” as he stared into a television camera after scoring twice against Uzbekistan at the 2026 World Cup. Portugal appeared to be fully capable of advancing on Thursday, scoring four goals in Denmark without him.

You wouldn’t believe how sharp the contrast is. Ronaldo scored twice in Portugal’s 5-0 thrashing of Uzbekistan on 23 June in Houston, making him the first player in World Cup history to score in six tournaments. 

The 41-year-old had already departed the national team camp on 1 October, reportedly due to a disagreement...

Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Buds On, marking the technology giant’s first venture into the clip-on wireless earbud market.

The new audio device features an open-ear design that leaves the ear canal completely unobstructed, prioritising long-term comfort and safety for runners, cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts.

The C-bridge style earbuds are equipped with smart motion tracking to recognise specific head gestures. Wearers can simply nod to answer incoming phone calls or use alternative head movements to turn off alarms without needing to tap the physical device.

Read more: Why Samsung’s One UI...

Pakistan has conducted a new wave of airstrikes across the border into Afghanistan. Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the casualties, with the Afghan Taliban stating the attacks killed nine civilians while Islamabad claims it eliminated 22 militants.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said the strikes hit homes in the Kunar and Helmand provinces. He reported that women and children were among the nine dead and 11 injured. Mujahid condemned the military action on X, describing it as an aggression and a crime that violates accepted international principles.

Pakistan’s information ministry offered a...

Supermodel Naomi Campbell won her legal appeal on Thursday against a five-year ban preventing her from serving as a charity trustee in England and Wales.

A three-person London tribunal ruled that Campbell, 56, was deceived by Bianka Hellmich, a fellow trustee and lawyer at Fashion For Relief. The First Tier Tribunal confirmed that while serious misconduct and financial mismanagement occurred at the poverty charity, the misuse of funds directly resulted from Hellmich’s actions and was concealed from the supermodel.

The ruling stems from a long-running controversy surrounding the philanthropic organisation Campbell established in 2005. Fashion For...

Apple is experiencing severe manufacturing difficulties with its inaugural foldable smartphone, as the production defect rate for the iPhone Duo has reached 40%.

The high failure rate stems directly from the complex engineering required to perfect the device’s folding screen mechanism and minimise the visible crease.

To reduce the handset’s overall footprint, the tech giant relies on a densely packed internal architecture featuring ultra-thin steel battery casings and a compressed vapour chamber. Chinese suppliers provide the bulk of these specialised components.

Lens Technology developed the custom ultra-thin glass, Lingyi produces the intricate hinge mechanisms, display support...

A chlorine gas leak at a luxury hotel on Jeju Island hospitalised 59 guests and employees on Thursday after toxic fumes spread through the property.

Emergency responders transported victims from the five-star Grand Josun Jeju hotel to nearby medical facilities, including Seogwipo Medical Center. Those affected experienced severe nausea, dizziness, headaches and vomiting. Guests using the hotel sauna at the time of the leak, including several infants and toddlers, reported persistent coughing, tearing and runny noses from the pungent smell.

Read more: Prosecutors search Jeju police over forged missing case files

Huawei Mate 90 flagship smartphone series launched in China, introducing five versions ranging from the standard Mate 90 to the premium Mate 90 RS Ultimate Design.

The new line runs HarmonyOS 7 and marks another step in Huawei’s push towards domestically developed smartphone technology. The range uses three Kirin processors, topped by the Kirin 9050 Pro, which uses Huawei’s new LogicFolding chip architecture.

Max Verstappen will return to GT racing later this month, confirming that he will drive for his own Verstappen Racing team in the GT World Challenge Europe season finale at Portimão.

The four-time Formula One world champion will compete in the three-hour Endurance Cup race at the Algarve International Circuit on October 17, filling one of the vacancies created by a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Regular Verstappen Racing drivers Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon will be unavailable because they are due to compete in the WEC round at Barcelona on the same weekend. Juncadella races for...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened a violent cockpit struggle aboard a Tel Aviv-bound Flydubai flight to the September 11 attacks after a rogue co-pilot allegedly attempted to crash the aircraft.

On September 30, an Omani co-pilot reportedly stabbed Indian captain Smit Machchhar aboard Flight FZ1073. The Boeing 737 MAX 8, carrying 174 people from Dubai, plummeted from 33,000 feet to roughly 17,000 feet. The jet lost nearly 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds, a rapid descent that aviation safety experts warned was severe enough to potentially damage the plane’s rudder.

A desperate cockpit...

Indian pilot Smit Machchhar has drawn international praise for averting a mid-air disaster after sustaining serious injuries during a violent cockpit struggle on a Flydubai flight.

Machchhar was commanding Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30 when his co-pilot allegedly attacked him and attempted to crash the Boeing 737. Israeli officials reported the aircraft plummeted nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds as the men fought over the controls.

Despite his severe injuries, Machchhar managed to activate the cockpit door release mechanism. This allowed passengers and cabin crew to breach the flight...

The management agency for BTS released a trailer Wednesday for the band’s upcoming reality programme episodes, branded “Run BTS 2.0.”

Filmed in Toronto, the promotional video features the seven members enjoying a picnic and participating in childhood games. Footage highlights the group playing pickleball alongside the Korean variation of Red Light, Green Light, a playground activity globally popularised by the television drama “Squid Game.”

Read more: BTS star becomes Nothing’s new global ambassador

Where to watch “Run BTS”

The new episodes will broadcast on October 6 and 11. Audiences can...

Esteban Ocon will leave TGR Haas F1 Team at the end of the 2026 season, bringing his two-year spell with the American team to a close and leaving the Frenchman without a confirmed Formula 1 seat for next year.

Haas and Ocon confirmed the decision on Wednesday after weeks of speculation surrounding his future. The 30-year-old joined the team from Alpine at the start of 2025 and is currently 16th in the drivers’ championship, 13 points behind team-mate Oliver Bearman.

A violent cockpit altercation forced a FlyDubai flight to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after passengers intervened to stop an alleged hijacking. Chaos erupted mid-air when a crew member attacked the captain with a knife, prompting a group of Israeli travellers to rush to the front of the aircraft and subdue the attacker.

Footage from the cabin reveals the immediate aftermath. The captain bleeds heavily on the floor outside the cockpit as passengers tend to his wounds, while a second man lies tied up nearby.

...

Uzbekistan has one of the world’s highest proportions of science and engineering graduates, but it ranks near the bottom of the global research spending chart. What went wrong with the nation’s innovation profile?

According to the 2026 Global Innovation Index compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Uzbekistan ranks second in the world for science and engineering graduates, with STEM fields accounting for 36.8% of total graduates. However, the country spends only 0.1% of GDP on research and development, ranking 99th out of 139 economies.

The WIPO is a UN agency responsible for intellectual property, and its annual Global...

A civil complaint filed on 14 September 2026 has revived a criminal investigation into an alleged group sexual assault at Cornell University. A former student, identified as Jane Doe, alleges she was drugged and assaulted by multiple members of the Chi Phi fraternity between 19 and 20 October 2024.

The lawsuit names seven specific defendants: Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar. Doe, who was 20 at the time, alleges that after being illegally served alcohol at Moonies Bar & Nightclub, she went to...

A violent fight in the cockpit appears to have forced an Israel-bound flydubai flight to divert to Saudi Arabia, with one passenger reporting a knife and blood on the plane. However, claims that one of the pilots deliberately attempted to crash the plane have yet to be verified.

Flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when the pilots became involved in a physical altercation, an Israeli official told Reuters. AP separately cited a regional official briefed on the incident who said a fight had broken out in the cockpit, though its cause remained unclear.

Israel reportedly scrambled fighter jets on 30 September after a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv sent out a suspected hijack alert, according to Israeli media. The plane changed course towards Saudi Arabia, but no hijacking was confirmed.

According to Ynet, the FlyDubai flight FZ1073, bound for Tel Aviv, carried 174 passengers, including 27 children. An Israeli security official told the outlet that authorities had been unable to contact the pilot.

Israel Hayom reported that the aircraft transmitted emergency code 7700, followed by code 7500, before circling in Saudi airspace. The circumstances behind...

Actor Chad Lowe and producer Kim Painter are mourning the sudden loss of their 13-year-old daughter Fiona Hepler Lowe. The couple confirmed her passing in a public statement released on 29 September, expressing profound devastation over a tragedy that has shattered their closely knit household.

Fiona was the middle child of the couple, who married in Los Angeles in August 2010. Born in November 2012, she shared her life with her older sister Mabel, 17, and younger sister Nixie, 10. In their announcement, Lowe and Painter remembered the teenager as a smart, creative and loving girl...

Kazakhstan’s relationship with Russia is rooted in concerns that a diplomatic disagreement cannot easily undo: a vast shared border, a sizeable ethnic Russian community and cultural ties spanning back decades, president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in Berlin. 

Tokayev travelled to Germany on Tuesday to meet with chancellor Friedrich Merz and business circles on Tuesday. The two leaders spoke to the media on the back of the meeting, with ARD reporter Demian von Osten asking Kazakhstan’s president for his take on working with Russia in the current circumstances. 

His argument connected foreign policy with stability at home. 

«As for Russia, we...

HoYoverse has announced an opera collaboration for Genshin Impact Version 7.1, casting Russian classical singer Daria Terekhova to provide vocal performances. The partnership forms the cornerstone of the developer’s “Snezhnaya Cultural Co-Creation Series”, an initiative designed to integrate diverse artistic mediums into the game.

Terekhova brings substantial pedigree to the project as the principal soprano of the Stanislavsky Theatre. Her real-world repertoire spans acclaimed performances in The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte and The Tale of Tsar Saltan.

In Genshin Impact, she lends her classical training to Vodyanitsa, a character styled as the...

Tashkent residents are bracing for the familiar autumn haze as air pollution levels surge across the capital. Official data from Uzhydromet recorded fine particulate matter PM10 at 110 micrograms per cubic metre on Wednesday morning.

This figure exceeds the maximum permissible concentration of 75 micrograms per cubic metre by a factor of 1.46, signalling the start of the city’s seasonal environmental challenges.

Independent monitoring from the IQAir platform corroborated the shifting conditions.

The live Air Quality Index reached 91, classifying the atmosphere as “moderate” for the general public.

IQAir’s sensors measured the...

Shakira’s concert in Bishkek is scheduled for October 18, and tickets will go on sale on October 1. Prices start at 12,000 Kyrgyz soms, but the cheapest seats offer limited views.

The performance at Bishkek Arena forms part of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour. Kyrgyzstan’s presidential affairs department announced the date, describing it as her first concert in Central Asia, according to state news agency Kabar.

For fans planning a trip from Uzbekistan, the ticket-sale launch is at 08:00 Tashkent time — one hour behind Bishkek.

Time and venue

The...

CD Projekt Red has completely overhauled its defining role-playing game with The Witcher 3 Remastered.

The 45-gigabyte software update introduces extensive technical improvements, structural gameplay changes and new control schemes across all platforms. These extensive changes also incorporate previous expansions into the base game and prepare for the upcoming 2027 add-on “Ballads of the Past”.

The development team implemented significant graphics processing upgrades tailored to the latest hardware capabilities. PC players gain access to path tracing and ray-traced hairworks, supported by the newest generation of upscaling technologies, including Nvidia DLSS 4.5, AMD...

Aston Martin Aramco has confirmed its driver pairing for the 2027 Formula 1 season, renewing the contracts of both two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and Canadian driver Lance Stroll.

The announcement ends widespread paddock speculation regarding the future of Alonso. The 45-year-old Spaniard had been weighing a potential retirement following a challenging start to the 2026 campaign.

Aston Martin struggled initially with reliability issues and severe vibrations from its new Honda power unit in the Adrian Newey-designed chassis. However, recent performance upgrades, including a B-spec car introduced in Hungary and an engine...