A businessman was killed and three others were wounded Friday in what appears to be a targeted shooting at São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport, according to Brazil military police.
Approximately five assailants emerged from a black vehicle and opened fire on Antônio Vinicius Gritzbach outside the terminal, CNN Brasil reported. Police later discovered an abandoned vehicle matching the description near the airport and are investigating its connection to the attack.
The shooting sent travelers scrambling for cover inside the terminal, according to eyewitness accounts. Guarulhos Airport officials confirmed that police and medical teams responded immediately to the incident.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including military police, civil police, and highway patrol, converged on the scene. The São Paulo Homicide and Personal Protection Department is leading the investigation.
The São Paulo Secretary of Public Security said authorities are investigating the circumstances of the killing and will release additional details once the incident report is complete.
A suicide bomber struck a crowded railway station in southwestern Pakistan Saturday morning, killing at least 25 people and wounding 53 others, as the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack.
The explosion ripped through a platform at Quetta’s main railway station around 9 a.m., when the area was bustling with passengers, according to Senior Police Superintendent Muhammad Baloch. The casualties included passengers, railway employees, and security personnel.
“There was a lot of chaos. People were running back and forth, people were lying martyred, some without legs and arms and hands,” witness Fareed told reporters at the scene.
Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat confirmed the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. Security forces have cordoned off the area as investigations continue, and provincial Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
The attack marks the latest escalation in Balochistan’s long-running insurgency, which has intensified since China leased the province’s deep-water Gwadar port as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative in Pakistan. The BLA has carried out several deadly attacks this year, including an October assault on Chinese engineers and investors in Karachi that killed two Chinese citizens.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack in a statement.
Real Madrid face a critical test Saturday afternoon at the Bernabeu against fifth-placed Osasuna, as Carlo Ancelotti’s side attempts to recover from consecutive home defeats that have intensified pressure on the defending champions.
Madrid’s recent stumbles — a 4-0 league defeat to Barcelona and Tuesday’s 3-1 Champions League loss to AC Milan — have left them nine points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona, albeit with a game in hand. The situation has begun to raise questions about Ancelotti’s position, despite the club’s league and European double just five months ago.
Team News:
Real Madrid’s challenges are compounded by fresh injury concerns, with Aurelien Tchouameni ruled out for approximately a month due to an ankle injury sustained against Milan. He joins Thibaut Courtois, Dani Carvajal, and David Alaba on the sidelines. Federico Valverde is expected to recover from a back problem to start in midfield.
Osasuna, meanwhile, arrive in excellent form with three straight victories, including two consecutive league clean sheets. Head coach Vicente Moreno has a fully fit squad and could maintain the same lineup that defeated Real Valladolid, with 17-goal striker Ante Budimir leading the attack.
Probable Lineups:
Real Madrid (4-3-3): Lunin; Vazquez, Militao, Rudiger, Mendy; Valverde, Camavinga, Bellingham; Rodrygo, Mbappe, Vinicius
Osasuna haven’t beaten Real Madrid in any competition since January 2011, with their last Bernabeu victory coming in April 2004. However, they’ve earned draws in two of their last three visits and remain the only team to defeat Barcelona in La Liga this season.
The match kicks off at 4:15 p.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET) at the Santiago Bernabeu, where Madrid seek to avoid a third consecutive home defeat that could plunge the club into crisis ahead of the international break.
Premier League leaders Liverpool welcome Aston Villa to Anfield on Saturday, with Arne Slot’s side seeking to build on their midweek Champions League triumph while Villa aim to snap a three-game losing streak across all competitions.
The Reds enter the fixture in commanding form after a 4-0 dismantling of Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday, highlighted by Luis Diaz’s hat-trick, which maintained their perfect Champions League record. Liverpool also lead the Premier League by two points following last weekend’s 2-1 comeback victory over Brighton.
Villa, meanwhile, arrive following a bizarre 1-0 Champions League defeat to Club Brugge, where captain Tyrone Mings’ confusion over a goal kick led to a decisive penalty. The Lions sit sixth in the Premier League after a 4-1 loss to Tottenham last weekend.
Team News:
Liverpool remain without several key players through injury, including Harvey Elliott (foot), Federico Chiesa (fitness), Alisson Becker (thigh), and Diogo Jota (abdominal), none of whom will return before the international break.
Villa manager Unai Emery cannot call upon Matty Cash (calf) or Ross Barkley (unspecified), while Mings is likely to be rested following his midweek Champions League appearance as he continues recovery from an ACL injury.
Probable Lineups:
Liverpool (4-3-3): Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Mac Allister, Gravenberch; Salah, Szoboszlai, Diaz; Nunez
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Martinez; Konsa, Torres, Carlos, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; McGinn, Rogers, Ramsey; Watkins
Historical Context:
Villa’s struggles against top opposition continue to haunt them, having lost their last nine away matches against teams in the Premier League’s top two. Their winless run against Liverpool extends to eight matches across all competitions, though it includes May’s thrilling 3-3 draw at Villa Park.
The match kicks off at 5:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET) at Anfield, where Liverpool have won six straight home games in all competitions, scoring at least twice in each victory.
Manchester City visit Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday afternoon with Pep Guardiola’s side seeking to avoid losing four consecutive games for the first time under his management, as both teams aim to rebound from recent setbacks.
City’s unprecedented slump has seen defeats to Tottenham Hotspur (EFL Cup), Bournemouth (Premier League), and Sporting Lisbon (Champions League), marking their first three-game losing streak since April 2018. The 4-1 Champions League defeat ended City’s record 26-game unbeaten run in European competition.
“We’re in a dark place,” midfielder Bernardo Silva acknowledged, though Guardiola has countered this assessment while embracing the “tough challenge” ahead. Victory would briefly return the champions to the Premier League summit, pending Liverpool’s evening clash with Aston Villa.
The hosts enter Saturday’s match following consecutive losses to Liverpool in cup and league competition. Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler saw his side slip to eighth place despite a spirited performance at Anfield that saw them take the lead through Ferdi Kadioglu’s first goal for the club.
Team News:
Brighton’s injury list includes Solly March (ACL), James Milner and Adam Webster (thigh), while Lewis Dunk (calf) and Yankuba Minteh (muscle) face late fitness tests. Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley could return from ankle injuries.
City continue without Rodri (ACL) and Oscar Bobb (leg fracture), while Ruben Dias, John Stones, and Jack Grealish remain doubtful. Kevin De Bruyne, recently returned from a nine-game absence, is expected to feature from the bench as he builds fitness.
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Gundogan; Savinho, Foden, Doku; Haaland
Historical Context:
City have dominated this fixture historically, collecting 37 points from a possible 42 against Brighton in the Premier League (W12 D1 L1). However, Brighton remain unbeaten in five home matches this season, their best start to a top-flight campaign since 1982-83.
The match kicks off at 3 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) at the Amex Stadium, where both teams’ attacking philosophies and recent defensive vulnerabilities suggest potential for a high-scoring encounter.
Beyoncé has surpassed her husband Jay-Z to become the most-nominated artist in Grammy Awards history, earning 11 nominations Thursday for her country-inspired album “Cowboy Carter,” including album of the year and best country album.
The nominations push Beyoncé’s career total to 89, moving her ahead of Jay-Z’s 88 and adding another milestone to her record-breaking Grammy legacy. She already holds the record for most Grammy wins with 32 solo victories and three with Destiny’s Child, though the coveted album of the year prize has eluded her despite four previous nominations.
Jay-Z addressed this oversight earlier this year while accepting a lifetime achievement award, noting, “She has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work.”
The 2025 nominations feature strong showings from several female artists, with Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Post Malone, and Kendrick Lamar each receiving seven nominations. Taylor Swift, seeking an unprecedented fifth album of the year trophy, earned six nominations for “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Breakout stars Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan received nominations in all four major categories — album, song, and record of the year, plus best new artist. Roan, whose debut “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” earned album of the year consideration, emerges as a favorite for best new artist.
In a historic twist, The Beatles received a record of the year nomination for “Now And Then,” an AI-assisted completion of an unfinished John Lennon track, marking their first nomination in the category since winning best new artist 60 years ago.
Notable surprises include André 3000’s instrumental flute album “New Blue Sun” earning an album of the year nod, while established artists like Katy Perry, Dua Lipa, and Dolly Parton missed the nominations entirely. Former President Jimmy Carter became the oldest-ever Grammy nominee at 100, recognized for his audiobook “Last Sundays In Plains.”
The Recording Academy has expanded its voting membership to 13,000, with almost two-thirds joining since 2018 as part of efforts to increase diversity. CEO Harvey Mason Jr. recently warned voters against “bias, grudge-holding, or careless voting” amid ongoing scrutiny of the academy’s recognition of Black artists.
A record 20,309 entries were submitted across 94 categories this year. Winners will be announced at the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 2, 2025.
Leading Grammy Nominations for 2025:
– Beyoncé – 11
– Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Charli XCX – 7 each
– Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan – 6 each
A Russian military court has sentenced two soldiers to life in prison for murdering a family of nine, including two children, in occupied eastern Ukraine, marking a rare instance of Russia acknowledging crimes committed by its forces during the war, the business newspaper Kommersant reported Friday.
Anton Sopov, 21, and Stanislav Rau, 28, were convicted by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don for breaking into and killing the Kapkanets family in their home in Volnovakha, a city in the partially occupied Donetsk region. The soldiers were arrested October 30, 2023, two days after the bodies were discovered.
Anton Sopov and Stanislav Rau.
The case proceeded largely in secrecy, with prosecutors citing military confidentiality. While TASS state news agency initially reported in July that the soldiers had pleaded guilty but denied acting “out of hatred based on nationality,” Kommersant now reports they have pleaded not guilty and plan to appeal.
Russian media offered conflicting accounts of the motive, with TASS describing the murders as stemming from a “domestic dispute” and Kommersant suggesting an argument over vodka. However, Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets claimed the soldiers killed the family after they refused to abandon their home during a birthday celebration.
The convictions represent an unusual acknowledgment of military misconduct by Russian authorities, who have consistently denied targeting civilians and dismissed reports of atrocities as fabrications, despite numerous accusations of civilian killings in occupied territories.
Volnovakha, seized by Russian forces in the early days of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, was largely destroyed by artillery bombardments during the conflict.
Local authorities in Istanbul banned the screening of “Queer,” an LGBTQ-themed film starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, hours before its scheduled festival premiere Thursday, citing potential risks to public peace and security.
The decision by the Kadikoy District Governor’s Office led streaming platform Mubi to cancel its entire four-day festival, declaring that “this ban not only targets a single film but also undermines the very essence and purpose of the festival.” The sold-out event was set to feature various film screenings, talks, and performances from November 7-10.
“The decision states that the film is prohibited on the grounds that it contains provocative content that could endanger public peace, with the ban being imposed for security reasons,” Mubi announced on X, formerly Twitter. “We believe this ban is a direct restriction on art and freedom of expression.”
The incident occurs amid escalating anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly referred to community members as “perverts” or “deviants.” Authorities have banned pride marches nationwide since 2015, with at least 15 people detained in Istanbul this June for participating in a pride rally.
“The reason for the ban on ‘Queer’ is of course that it is a film about LGBTI+ people. When you try to organize any LGBTI+-themed event in Turkey since 2015, you already encounter such bans,” said Yıldız Tar, editor-in-chief of LGBTQ news portal KaosGL. Tar noted that the same office banned the screening of “Pride” during Pride Month events in June 2023.
The 2024 film “Queer,” adapted from William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novel and directed by Luca Guadagnino, follows an American expatriate in 1950s Mexico City who develops an intimate relationship with a younger man. Mubi recently acquired distribution rights for multiple territories, including Turkey.
Film critic Yeşim Burul condemned the decision as “unacceptable censorship,” telling VOA, “We, as adults, can decide which film we can and cannot watch. Such festivals are already organized for those over the age of 18.”
The LGBTI+ Rights Commission of Istanbul’s Human Rights Association branch argued the ban violates both domestic law and Turkey’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights’ anti-discrimination principles. The Actors’ Union of Turkey labeled it “clearly an application of censorship,” emphasizing art’s role in broadening societal perspectives.
The Kadikoy District Governor’s Office has not responded to requests for comment.
Iranian operatives sought to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s presidential election, prioritizing the plot over other planned attacks against regime critics, according to federal court documents unsealed Friday.
The revelations emerged from conversations between FBI agents and Farhad Shakeri, 51, the alleged ringleader of an unrelated murder-for-hire scheme. Speaking from Tehran, Shakeri told agents that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official approached him in September, directing him to abandon a planned assassination of an Iranian dissident journalist in New York to focus on targeting Trump.
“We have already spent a lot of money… money’s not an issue,” the IRGC official told Shakeri when he raised concerns about costs, according to the documents. The official demanded a plan within seven days, indicating they would wait until after the election if the timeline proved impossible, believing Trump would lose and become an easier target.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”
The plot marks Iran’s latest attempt to retaliate for the 2020 U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed IRGC Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani. In August, authorities charged Pakistani national Asif Merchant for allegedly seeking hitmen to kill Trump on Iran’s behalf.
Court documents describe Shakeri as an Afghan national deported from the U.S. in 2008 after serving 14 years for robbery. During his imprisonment, he allegedly built a criminal network later used to execute Iranian directives. Prosecutors say he worked with associate Carlisle Rivera, 49, who enlisted Jonathan Loadholt, 36, to kill Voice of America Persian Service journalist Masih Alinejad for $100,000.
Rivera and Loadholt were arrested Thursday. All three face charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and money laundering, carrying maximum sentences of 10 to 20 years. Shakeri faces additional charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Alinejad, described in court documents as “an Iranian American journalist, author, and political activist, and an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime,” expressed shock at being connected to the presidential assassination plot. “I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter, thanking law enforcement for protection.
The Iranian mission at the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment. The court documents do not specify whether Shakeri’s FBI conversations were authorized by Iranian authorities.
Last month, U.S. prosecutors charged a senior IRGC official for a separate 2022 attempted assassination of Alinejad, highlighting Iran’s persistent use of criminal networks to target critics and officials on American soil.
Multiple federal and state agencies have launched investigations into a coordinated campaign of racist text messages sent to Black Americans across the country following this week’s presidential election, with messages particularly targeting children and students.
The FBI, Justice Department, and Federal Communications Commission are investigating the nationwide series of texts, which were reported in at least seven states including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Tennessee. The messages instructed recipients to “board a bus” for transport to a “plantation” to work as slaves, officials said.
“These messages are unacceptable,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “We take this type of targeting very seriously.”
Investigators say the perpetrators used VPN technology to mask their location while exploiting bulk-messaging systems typically used for legitimate marketing. The texts targeted Black recipients with disturbing precision, sometimes addressing children by name.
“This is an intimidating, threatening use of technology” that likely violated multiple laws, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in an interview. Brown expressed particular concern about the targeting of minors through data typically collected from adults, such as campaign donors or magazine subscribers.
The wireless industry has blocked thousands of these messages and associated phone numbers, according to CTIA spokesperson Nick Ludlum. TextNow, a phone service provider, confirmed that “one or more” of its accounts were used to send the messages and were subsequently disabled for violating terms of service.
The targeting of young people has caused significant distress in affected communities. Nicole, a North Carolina mother who requested her last name be withheld, described her high school daughter’s first encounter with such overt racism.
“It’s like a slap in the face and it shows me that it is still an issue that has not changed at all,” she said. “She has a lot of friends of different races. She’s the one that doesn’t see color and she doesn’t see a difference. So, I feel like for her, it really showed her that everyone isn’t like her.”
Dr. Robert Greene II, assistant professor of history at Claflin University, said the timing and focus on young Black students appears deliberate. “It’s a way to say to, especially Black college students, that this is the world they are now living in, that this kind of outright racist intimidation is coming back to the norm in American society and American politics,” he said.
Technology experts say the perpetrators likely used readily available personal data and machine-learning algorithms to target recipients by race. “All of this means it might be easier than most people realize to make a really good guess about the race or ethnicity of the person attached to that phone number,” said Cori Faklaris, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Unlike email or social media, text messages in the U.S. are regulated like utilities, with little content filtering available to block suspicious messages before delivery. However, Faklaris noted that improved investigative tools developed during the pandemic’s surge in texting scams should help authorities trace the source of these attacks.
The incident has prompted calls for enhanced protections against technologically enabled racial harassment, with multiple state attorneys general pledging to use all available resources to identify and prosecute those responsible.
