Serbia’s long-standing leader Aleksandar Vučić has admitted defeat to a student-led protest movement in snap parliamentary elections.

Celebrations erupted as crowds descended on the centre of Belgrade, Novi Sad and other cities.

The student movement was formed less than two years ago in response to a railway station disaster blamed on corruption and negligence, but fought the election with candidates from a cross-section of Serbian society.

“It is clear we have lost these elections,” right-wing populist leader Vučić said as he conceded. With 97% of polling stations counted, Serbia’s election commission said the students had won 2.24 million votes and the former ruling party 1.67 million.

The students had secured 52.6% of the vote, while Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) was on 39.2%, according to its preliminary figures late on Monday morning.

Vučić had spent two terms as president and could not seek a third term, so was leading his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) with the aim of returning to the post of prime minister, which he left in 2017.

He called the snap elections after two years of protests triggered by the collapse of a canopy in front of Novi Sad station which killed 16 people.

A TV personality looked unrecognisable this week as he debuted a hilarious Halloween costume – but can you guess who it is?

This star got into character as Harry Potter’s Lord Voldemort for his costume and even used prosthetics to make it extra-realistic.

Dressed in a black cloak, the dad-of-one – who first rose to fame on a reality show – swapped his usual blonde hair for a bald head disguise.

While he used prosthetics to emulate Ralph Fiennes’ iconic character’s complexion and held a wand to complete the look.

This star could have been a kitten for Halloween, but opted for the Harry Potter character instead.

Have you guessed who it is yet?

health fright

Noel Gallagher’s daughter Anais rushed to hospital ‘struggling to breathe’

TABLE TORMENT

James Acaster reveals unaired Celeb Traitors moment that gives cast ‘trauma’

It’s Candy Kittens founder and former Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing!

Sharing a video to Instagram in costume, Jamie hilariously danced around his home in the costume – moving from the bedroom to the kitchen and even on an exercise bike as he got into the spooky spirit.

“Lord Voldemort has come to play…,” Jamie captioned his video.

Fans and friends found the costume hilarious, with Jamie’s former MIC co-star Tiffany Watson writing: “This is too good”.

A fan wrote: “how do you look more like voldemort than voldemort did 😭😭😭”.

“This is the best thing I’ve seen on the internet in a while,” said a second.

Jamie dressed up to film a special episode of his podcast NewlyParents, which he fronts alongside wife Sophie Habboo.

Co-host Sophie didn’t go quite as all out as Jamie did for the fancy dress special, simply drawing a scar on her forehead and donning glasses in a bid to be Harry Potter.

The landmark Casa Vega Mexican restaurant in Sherman Oaks was honored in May with a sign proclaiming its corner of Ventura Boulevard as “Casa Vega Square.”

Mayor Karen Bass was there, and so was City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, whose district is on the other side of the San Fernando Valley. The event was perhaps more notable for who wasn’t there: Nithya Raman, the mayoral candidate whose City Council district includes Casa Vega.

To Raman’s critics, the episode represents what they say is one of her biggest flaws as an elected official: not tending to the parochial needs of her district. Bass has sounded that theme repeatedly during the mayoral election campaign, including calling Raman “contemptuous of her constituents” during their televised debate on NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Oct. 13.

Raman called that “a lie.” Some of Raman’s constituents beg to differ, saying her office has seemed unwilling to help with a broad array of city services, including fixing broken sidewalks and removing homeless encampments.

“She’s just been MIA,” said Jessica Lewis, who owns Dragonfly Cycle and Train, a fitness studio in Sherman Oaks. “I would send photos of what I was experiencing, like human feces at my front door, encampments at the back door … all those emails just fell on deaf ears.”

Raman spokesperson Stella Stahl disputed that contention, saying the council office has “a proactive constituent service team.”

“Our approach is to listen to those who live and work in a neighborhood, then use every tool the city has to fix what they’ve told us is broken,” Stahl said.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, left, and challenger Nithya Raman during their debate before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.

(David Butow / For The Times)

Raman co-presented the motion to designate Vega Square, along with Councilmember Rodriguez, according to documents filed in March. Raman was unable to attend the ceremony because of scheduling conflicts, Stahl said, but other Raman staffers were present.

Councilmember Rodriguez said her staff spearheaded the designation, part of her broader work to “enshrining the many positive contributions that Latino families have made throughout our city.”

To be sure, Raman has constituents who are big fans. Marissa Rodriguez said she wasn’t aware of the web of licenses and city permits she would have to obtain before she could open her wine shop in Studio City, Dia Natural Wine. The process felt monumental, she said, and nearly impossible to complete on her own.

She reached out to Raman’s team, and said the council office’s help was integral to Dia Natural Wine making its debut in 2022.

“I thought I could do this myself, and at a certain point, I hit a ton of roadblocks at the city,” Marissa Rodriguez said. “They were extremely helpful in just sort of helping me navigate who I needed to talk to.”

Tyler Simmons, who owns a coffee wine bar, Reunion & Co., on Hyperion Avenue in the Franklin Hills neighborhood of Los Feliz, said Raman and her team have always been receptive to his community’s needs.

In response to complaints of speeding, he said, Raman’s office helped get four speed tables — a flatter, wider version of speed bumps — installed in the intersection near his business last year.

“She’s done her best,” Simmons said. “I think there’s larger systemic issues at play within the city … it’s bigger than a councilperson, unfortunately. I’m hoping, if she wins, she’ll help change all that.”

Sidewalks in disrepair along the 1300 block of Ventura Blvd on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, in Sherman Oaks, California. Christy Vega, owner of Casa Vega, claims that Nithya Raman, Councilmember, Fourth District, has been unhelpful and ignored her requests to get certain city services, including street sidewalk repairs and addressing homelessness in her parking lot. (Gary Coronado/For The Times)

A street in disrepair along the 1300 block of Ventura Blvd on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, in Sherman Oaks, California. Christy Vega, owner of Casa Vega, claims that Nithya Raman, Councilmember, Fourth District, has been unhelpful and ignored her requests to get certain city services, including street sidewalk repairs and addressing homelessness in her parking lot. (Gary Coronado/For The Times)

On the other hand, Casa Vega owner Christy Vega rattles off a long list of complaints when discussing Raman and her office. She said she’s spent years seeking help from Raman’s staff, including to make repairs on sidewalks and pavement outside the restaurant, and to remove a homeless encampment that sprang up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With Raman’s office, they viewed me as a nuisance rather than someone who’s trying to keep her employees safe,” Vega said.

Vega is supporting Bass in the Nov. 3 election, and she sits on on the board of Thrive LA, an advocacy group backed by business and community leaders that is running ads against Raman in the mayoral race and also ran anti-Raman ads during her 2024 City Council reelection campaign.

Vega says she’s not supporting Raman because of her experience seeking help from Raman’s council office for problems her business encountered, including cars being broken into in the restaurant’s parking lot and muggings on the street out front. One employee was stabbed at a nearby bus stop, and another fell because of the potholes in the alley behind her restaurant, she said.

At one point, Vega said, she called Raman’s office to ask for help in fixing the curb near her restaurant that was damaged during a street racing incident.

Vega said she was told by Raman’s office that she would need to fix the curb herself, meaning she’d have to pull permits, hire a contractor and pay out of pocket for the repairs Vega said she pushed back, and a staff member suggested she move to another district.

Raman’s office didn’t comment on that assertion, but Stahl said that the Bureau of Street Services isn’t funded to repair damaged sidewalks, and the responsibility falls to the adjacent property owners.

“Every constituent who contacts our office deserves a response, and we take Ms. Vega’s concerns seriously. People often reach out to us on their hardest days,” Stahl said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to accommodate it at that time. Telling constituents no to basic service requests is frustrating for residents and for us, and it’s part of why the council member ran for office.”

Councilmember Rodriguez, who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley, said she’s stepped in to help business owners in Raman’s district over the years. Most recently, she helped Vega with permitting issues on the restaurant’s outdoor patio.

A sign for L.A. Councilmember Nithya Raman’s district office on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.

(Gary Coronado / For The Times)

“I’ve heard some of the same frustrations and stories from many people. … It reflects a pattern,” said Rodriguez, who is backing Bass for mayor. “If this is your audition [for mayor] based on your performance in your own district, I think it’s an example of the responsiveness of what people can expect.”

Sophia Brodetsky, who owns the Valley Inn restaurant with her husband in Sherman Oaks, isn’t happy with either mayoral candidate, but said Bass’ office has been more receptive to her needs.

Brodetsky has endured robberies, property damage and homeless encampments that have disrupted her restaurant that dates back to 1947, she said.

“They’re running for office right now. They promise you an arm and a leg, but they don’t deliver,” Brodetsky said.

According to Vega and Lewis, owner of the Dragonfly gym, a number of Sherman Oaks business owners reached out to Bass after she was elected mayor in 2022 to voice their concerns about Raman’s stewardship of the district.

The mayor met with a group of business owners in the area in 2023 and she convened weekly safety meetings between business owners, district leaders and local law enforcement to address their concerns, Vega said.

Vega said it was Bass and Rodriguez who helped her navigate the permit process when she sought to open an outdoor patio for her restaurant last year.

“I wasn’t a supporter of hers. I wasn’t someone that she owed any favors to,” Vega said of Bass. “She answered the phone immediately, and she heard the panic of my voice and my tears, and she said, ‘I’m on it.’”

Lewis, however, said she and others felt betrayed by Bass when she endorsed Raman for reelection in 2024.

“That just felt like a huge slap in the face,” Lewis said.

Lewis said she plans to vote for Bass, but reluctantly. Keeping her business afloat has felt nearly impossible at times, she said, but getting help from both the council and the mayor’s office has been an even tougher hurdle.

“The council office would blame the mayor’s office. The mayor’s office would blame the county,” Lewis said. “It was like everyone was just pointing fingers at someone else, and no one was actually doing anything about it.”

Pakistan had all but lost hope of winning their One-Day International (ODI) cricket match against England when all-rounder Shadab Khan walked onto the pitch to bat and stormed off it with an unlikely come-from-behind win in the bag, in front of a raucous home crowd in Lahore.

The hosts were reduced to 154-9 in the chase of 242 on Sunday, and England were in sight of their first win of the tri-nation series when Shadab and fast bowler Haris Rauf came together for the last-wicket partnership.

From there on, Shadab put on a run-chase masterclass, hitting an unbeaten century to give Pakistan a one-wicket victory and book a spot in the series final.

The 28-year-old launched a surprise counterattack on England, ending up with 113 not out off 96 balls alongside Rauf (7 not out off 19). Shadab and Rauf’s partnership was the highest last-wicket stand in a successful run chase in ODI history.

Earlier in England’s innings, Ben Duckett was the lone batting saviour, scoring 105 off 111 for his fifth ODI century. Once Arafat Minhas dismissed him, England looked hopeless as Shaheen Afridi’s impressive bowling cleaned up their batting lineup.

He took his fourth wicket (4-46) to remove Henry Crocombe. England’s last-wicket pair added 39 to post a below-par total of 241 all out from 46.4 overs.

England then decimated Pakistan’s top order as Jamie Overton (3-43) and Liam Dawson (2-19) removed Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam and Saad Baig cheaply.

The hosts ultimately slumped to 154-9, having been 74-3. By this point, England had all but secured victory as the home crowd began leaving Gaddafi Stadium after the ninth wicket fell.

Shadab stepped up to flip the script and produce the batting performance of a lifetime when he prised victory away from England, particularly after his leg-before-wicket dismissal was overturned on review.

“I dedicate this win to the two most wonderful women in my life: my mother & my wife,” Shadab wrote on social media following the victory.

“Special mention for [Haris Rauf], we win only as a team and he showed that today in the partnership. Thank you to my entire team.”

‘Won it for Pakistan out of nowhere’

The victory went some way towards restoring faith among Pakistani cricket fans, who have endured months of dismal performances at global tournaments, as well as bilateral series.

It was “an innings to remember”, as former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Hafeez put it, while teammate Imad Wasim praised Shadab for handling the extreme pressure.

“That was a sensational innings by Shadab Khan,” Sri Lanka’s veteran cricketer Angelo Mathews wrote on X. “Won it for Pakistan out of nowhere.”

Barbadian wicketkeeper-batsman Shai Hope called the match “absolute cinema” while former West Indies cricketer Daren Sammy termed it “another thriller”, referring to Sri Lanka’s thrashing of England on Thursday when they recorded the second-highest successful run chase in ODI history.

Praise and memes kept pouring in on social media as one user joked about making a documentary of the game, while others reiterated the need for more trilateral series in ODI format.

Speaking after the match, Pakistan’s captain Afridi said he was pleased with the team’s overall performance, especially the way Shadab and Haris finished the game.

“We thought we had a lot of variation in the team, so that’s why we brought Shadab in,” the fast bowler said.

“We need top-order runs; we’re struggling. I hope in the next few games we’ll bring that energy.

“I think tonight we’ll be celebrating; tomorrow back to normal.”

‘Incredible run chase’

English cricket commentator Nasser Hussain praised Pakistan’s “incredible run chase” as he credited Shadab’s change of intent in the heat of the moment.

“Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf; that partnership, you had to be really switched on and smart how you played it,” Hussain said on Sky Sports.

“The moment they changed intent, the moment Shadab said ‘right we’ve gone one way, it’s gone nowhere, we’re going to play our shots’, there’s a lesson to be learnt,” Hussain said, referring to the previous game when England were put under pressure.

“Brilliant change of intent from Shadab Khan; that game had gone from them. Took one individual backed up by Haris Rauf to bring it back.”

Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf echoed a similar sentiment.

“Superb display of positive intent! Fearless, aggressive and full of belief. Take a bow,” he wrote on X.

Speaking alongside Hussain, retired English cricketer Chris Woakes agreed on Shadab’s spectacular performance: “A hundred not out at number eight is pretty special!”

EXPLAINER

Uncertainty remains over key positions after student-led movement deals blow to longtime leader’s political dominance.

A student-led opposition movement has emerged victorious in Serbia’s snap parliamentary election, ending former President Aleksandar Vucic’s long grip on power.

The Student List’s win on Sunday followed nearly two years of youth-led protests triggered by the death of 16 people in a railway station canopy collapse in the city of Novi Sad in 2024.

Demonstrations demanding accountability quickly evolved into a wider political campaign against alleged corruption and capture of democratic institutions. In its electoral programme presented in September, the Student List said fighting corruption and organised crime were among its main priorities. It also pledged to raise living standards, boost employment, improve education, ensure media freedom and the independence of Serbia’s institutions.

After declaring victory on Sunday, the movement also said it would work to improve relations with neighbouring countries following a period of tension during Vucic’s more than decade-long rule.

Here’s what you should know:

What are the latest results?

The Republic Election Commission (RIK) announced on Monday that the Student List had won 52.54 percent of the vote, based on 8,077 processed polling stations out of 8,392.

The figures also showed the United Serbia list, led by Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party, had secured 39.29 percent of ballots cast.

Voter turnout stood at 68.78 percent, a record high in more than 30 years, according to RIK data on Sunday.

What’s next?

While the final election result is not yet known, the figures mean that the Student List will be able to form a majority in Serbia’s 250-seat parliament on its own.

The bloc is projected to win 140 seats, well ahead of the 126 mandates required for a majority, while United Serbia is expected to have 103.

The remaining seats are set to go to the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (three); the Albanian political bloc (two); and the Rasim Ljajc-Ljudski and SDA Sandzak lists, with one each.

Who could be the new prime minister?

Unlike United Serbia, which named Vucic as its candidate for prime minister before the election, the Student List made no such announcement during the campaign.

Since its formal creation, the list has avoided highlighting single candidates, eager to emphasise the collective nature of the movement that brought together academics, doctors and workers.

During the campaign, the movement was led by Ilija Srdanovic, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Novi Sad. The cardiologist is now seen as the most likely candidate to become the next prime minister, but it remains unclear who will take over key ministries, including those of internal affairs, finance and justice.

When will the new government be formed?

This depends on when the final election results will be announced and when parliament convenes.

The new National Assembly must be established within 30 days of the final results being announced.

A government must be formed within 90 days after that – but the Student List’s clear majority removes the need for lengthy coalition talks.

What about the president?

Vucic has dominated Serbia’s politics – first as prime minister and then as president – since 2014.

Following his call for the snap parliamentary vote last month and his resignation as president, the post has been held temporarily by Ana Brnabic, the president of the National Assembly.

Brnabic is obliged to call for an extraordinary presidential election which must be held no later than three months after the end of Vucic’s mandate.

Vucic resigned on September 27 , so the deadline to hold a vote is December 27 .

The president of Serbia is elected directly by the citizens, not by the representatives in the assembly, but the post is largely ceremonial.

As Netflix grapples with fallout from historic layoffs and upheaval in its senior executive ranks, the streaming giant is facing mounting scrutiny from investors about its growth strategy, diversification plans and response to rising competition from the likes of YouTube.

But the biggest challenge confronting the Los Gatos, Calif., company may be something more fundamental: a clash between the firm’s roots as a technology-driven upstart and its ambition to be a force in Hollywood.

Increasingly, tensions have flared between the L.A.-based executives dedicated to movies and TV shows and its engineers and technologists in Silicon Valley. Internal disputes have erupted over how best to expand the business and promote content on the platform to boost audience engagement, according to former Netflix employees and industry insiders who spoke to The Times.

The friction has deepened since co-founder Reed Hastings stepped away from management, handing the reins in January 2023 to Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, who share the job of chief executive.

The dual-boss structure has at times hobbled the company and contributed to muddled messages and some costly misfires, such as its foray in the games business, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly due to the sensitivity of the topic.

“With two CEOs, it’s hard to have a singular vision,” said a former Netflix executive who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Netflix declined to comment for this article.

But a person close to the company disputed the claim that there was a culture divide in Netflix.

“The idea that this is a power struggle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley misses how Netflix actually operates,” said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “Ted and Greg bring different perspectives to the table, and that’s the point. They debate, make decisions together and recognize that neither great content nor great technology succeeds here without the other.”

Netflix, which laid off 6% of staff this month, has faced rising pressure after losing its status as a Wall Street darling and a Hollywood star.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Only about 1% of the largest 3,000 publicly traded companies in the U.S. have co-CEOs, according to research firm Equilar. But there are high-profile examples of the arrangement, including software company Oracle, Comcast Corp., Spotify and private equity behemoth KKR.

The Larry Ellison family, which this month merged Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111-billion transaction, installed scion David Ellison as CEO and the former leader of Mattel Corp., Ynon Kreiz, as co-CEO. Hollywood has had prosperous pairings, including longtime Warner Bros. studio chiefs Bob Daly and Terry Semel. Disney achieved tremendous success in the early 1990s when the late Frank Wells worked alongside former CEO Michael Eisner.

“The division of labor is just extremely powerful,” said Henning Piezunka, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “If there is a disagreement between the CEOs, you still have two very smart people that are battling it out, and I kind of prefer that over one single person making the decision.”

But Netflix’s top leaders now face mounting pressure as the company has lost its status as a Wall Street darling and a Hollywood star.

Netflix’s proposed $82.7-billion bid to buy Warner Bros. late last year failed dramatically, causing its stock price to plummet.

Investors have grown impatient; they want to see better growth metrics, which has become increasingly difficult as the service, which has more than 325 million subscribers, has neared saturation in the U.S.

This month, Netflix laid off 6% of its staff, including several key movie and TV executives. It bounced its chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, replacing her with former Fox and Disney executive Peter Rice, who starts on Monday. Several programming executives were also let go, including film chief Dan Lin and his top deputy, Doug Belgrad, and the director of original TV series, Carolina Garcia.

“They have got to have a plan to reignite revenue growth, and it can’t just be about making better TV content,” said Laura Martin, media analyst with Needham & Co. “Everybody’s trying to make hit content.”

Former Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, left, and Ted Sarandos attend at 2011 launch party in Mexico City.

(Elizabeth Fuentes/Getty Images)

A dynamic leader

Former CEO Hastings, who co-founded the company in Scotts Valley just outside of Santa Cruz in 1997, was a dynamic leader. The mathematics and computer science graduate, who spent two years in the Peace Corps, launched Netflix by mailing DVDs in red envelopes to customers bothered by Blockbuster Video chain’s practices and late fees. In 2007, Netflix began offering streaming.

Hastings oversaw the creation of a pioneering technology that could offer helpful recommendations to users on what to watch next.

That recommendation algorithm has long been viewed as Netflix’s secret sauce. It quickly became the envy of rival entertainment firms that were late to recognize how disruptive the streaming business would become.

With Hastings, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur at the helm, power at the company was cleanly split between the tech teams who worked at its Bay Area headquarters and the executives who worked with talent and content on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Hastings established Netflix’s unique left-brain/right-brain culture, where people pitching projects were encouraged to openly debate and disagree.

To prepare for an eventual leadership transition, the company set up a dual CEO structure in 2020 by promoting Sarandos, its longtime content chief, to co-CEO.

Hastings, a 66-year-old billionaire, stepped down in 2023 as co-CEO, leaving his lieutenants in charge.

Hastings did not respond to a request for a comment.

Sarandos, 62, was known for making splashy bets on programming that paid off, including agreeing to pay $100 million for the first two seasons of a political drama, “House of Cards,” starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright that turned into one of Netflix’s first big TV hits.

Peters, 55, who was previously chief operating officer, has a tech background that complemented Sarandos’ entertainment industry insights. He holds a bachelor degree in physics and astronomy from Yale University and was taught code by his mother, a computer programmer.

Under Sarandos’ leadership, Netflix grew its presence in Hollywood and created content teams internationally. With Hastings no longer in the day-to-day mix, the power tilted toward Hollywood and Sarandos, who oversees the bulk of the company’s $20-billion programming budget.

“Over time, the center of gravity moved to L.A.,” one industry executive said.

The company expanded its business, including offering customers a cheaper subscription plan with ads. It also pushed into live sports, which Bajaria championed, and games.

The Dallas Cowboys’ Gene Jones, left, and Jerry Jones chat with Netflix executive Ted Sarandos during a 2025 premiere at the Egyptian Arena Theatre in Hollywood.

(Amy Sussman / Getty Images)

Escalating tensions

But as Netflix expanded and diversified, internal divisions intensified over operations and strategy.

In one instance, tech employees were surprised when Sarandos’ team signed a deal to release 2024 NFL Christmas Day games on Netflix without consulting tech and product executives, whose staffers would be responsible for providing the tech support for such a key event, two people familiar with the matter said. Those concerns were magnified after Netflix experienced widespread technical difficulties during the streaming of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight that November, though the NFL broadcast was largely free of glitches.

Disputes also emerged over how best to promote and market shows and movies on the platform. Under Hastings, the trailers and thumbnails of programs were overseen by the product team, who analyze consumer behavior. But Sarandos has given the company’s marketing team more control over the promotional assets of programs, leading to disagreements with the product team over how to best to represent programs and engage viewers, two people familiar with the matter said.

Another source of internal friction has centered on Netflix’s aggressive venture into games that Peters championed, as part of a strategy to diversify its business and retain subscribers.

The streamer acquired several game studios beginning in 2021, investing billions into the space, sources said.

But the effort has badly misfired. In August, Netflix announced it was closing Hollywood-based gaming studio Night School and shuttering Finland-based gaming studio Moonloot. It previously shuttered Allen, Texas-based Boss Fight Entertainment.

The focus on games also sparked disagreements between Peters and Sarandos, who believed the tech and product teams were giving too much attention to games, creating confusion among teams over how they should operate, said a source with knowledge of the matter.

The leaders also disagreed in other areas as well, including over a 2025 deal with French broadcaster TF1 to bring its free channels into Netflix in France as a way to draw more viewers to both services.

Peters pushed for the deal, which Sarandos initially opposed, and the debate delayed an effort that could have helped the business sooner, according to three people familiar with the deal who were not authorized to comment. The TF1 partnership was a success that Netflix wants to replicate with other partners.

Sarandos and Peters also raised eyebrows when they appeared to send conflicting signals on the company’s interest in buying Warner Bros. During an Oct. 8, 2025, conference appearance, Peters said Netflix had a deep heritage of being a builder rather than a buyer.

“One should have a reasonable amount of skepticism around big media mergers,” Peters said. “They don’t have an amazing track record over the history of time.”

Netflix executives Greg Peters, left, and Ted Sarandos, right, visit a studio lot with Warner Bros. Discover chief David Zaslav.

(Joe Pugliese and John Nowak / For Warner Bros. Discovery)

A week later, Sarandos called Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to express interest in acquiring Warner’s streaming and studios business, according to regulatory filings. Netflix in December unveiled its $82.7-billion proposal, which Peters also supported, according to knowledgeable sources.

But, after spending months touting the benefits that Warner assets would bring, Netflix abruptly pulled out of the auction in late February when Paramount’s Ellison upped his company’s offer. Warner executives expected Netflix to go the distance, but they soon recognized deep anxiety within Netflix’s board, according to an executive who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Netflix’s stock hasn’t recovered. Its shares traded for $109 before the Warner bid. On Friday, the stock closed at $65.85.

Netflix is profitable, with net income increasing 44% to $3.7 billion in the third quarter and revenue up 12% to $12.87 billion from the third quarter a year ago, but the company remains under scrutiny by Wall Street.

Sarandos in an earnings call last week there is “no need for a fundamental shift in the strategy” but said the company needs to develop more hit shows in the U.S. that can “travel around the world.”

Netflix projected its revenue would come in the lower range of its estimate for the year, citing a lower ad revenue forecast.

“Their advertising growth has been very slow … and the video game business has been disappointing,” Martin, the analyst, said. “The problem is that the market is maturing and they need a Plan B, and they don’t really have a Plan B right now.”

ONE of the UK’s largest indoor waterparks is set to close next week until next year.

Despite usually remaining open year-round, Aqua Park in Stoke-on-Trent will close for renovations next week.

The park is part of Waterworld and will be closed from November 2 until early next year.

The park is hosting a ‘Last Splash’ party on November 1 before the closure with a DJ between 12pm and 4pm.

Few details have been revealed about the renovation, but the park currently has 30 rides and attractions.

The website simply states that it cannot wait to welcome back visitors with “exciting upgrades”.

Read more on travel inspo

GO ON

All the little-known websites for cheap or FREE tickets to gigs, theatre & festivals

CHEAP BREAKS

UK’s best 100 cheap stays – our pick of the top hotels, holiday parks and pubs

Wayne Goodall, Managing Director of Waterworld Leisure Resort, said: “Our closing party is the perfect chance for visitors to make a last splash with us before we close for a short time to make exciting changes across the Aqua Park.

“At its heart, Waterworld offers families a place to spend time together, escape from everyday life and enjoy that holiday feeling, whatever the weather.

“The upgrades we have planned are set to build on that sense of fun and enhance the way we tell our story, creating a more immersive experience for our guests.

“We can’t wait to reveal more about the upcoming investment soon.”

Adventure Mini Golf and Adventure Mini Village will remain open while the Aqua Park undergoes renovation.

Waterworld first opened in 1989 and is heated to a toasty 30C year-round, with numerous different slides such as Cyclone, Hurricane and Stormchaser.

There are racing slides as well and even a water rollercoaster.

If thrill rides aren’t your thing though, you can relax in the wave pool or bubble pools.

There’s also a rapids area, hot tubs and a children’s splash area.

My fellow Californians, let us begin with an intelligence test.

Our great state has been voting since early October. Folks have been mailing in their ballots, dropping them off at collection sites and even showing up at in-person centers.

So raise your hand if you know — or even just assume — elections officials have been doing something with those ballots as they arrive, other than just throwing them in a pile.

Congratulations, hand-raisers. You are now officially smarter than the entire U.S. Department of Justice. Or at least more honest.

On Sunday, the lawyers for the DOJ managed to get a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to convene a rare emergency hearing because, OMG, people are actually voting and California is processing ballots!

Who could have possibly known?

Even though it’s literally law that counties count ballots in a timely manner; even though it’s happened in every other election; even though the daily tallies of how many ballots are received are posted online by the secretary of State; even though there are live camera feeds of ballots being processed in Los Angeles — somehow the U.S. government didn’t know this normal election procedure was happening, it claimed.

It wasn’t until late Friday, when DOJ lawyers read a filing by California DOJ lawyers laying out that L.A. is, like, actually opening mail-in ballots, that the U.S. DOJ realized that ballots are being opened. About 600,000 so far in L.A.

That seemed “absurd on its face,” argued California Deputy Solicitor Gen. Samuel P. Siegel.

Armed with this previously unknowable information, Trump’s lawyers were begging the appeals court to take their flimsy, constitutionally questionable case away from the judge who had already promised to rule on their requests on Tuesday and immediately give them an injunction to further their election conspiracy claims.

Most folks are aware of the background of this drama, but here’s the quick recap.

President Trump for years has falsely but incessantly claimed that Democrats are colluding with undocumented people to help them sneak into the country in exchange for illegally voting in mass numbers for Democrats. This is not happening, but the president is obsessed with this conspiracy, so much so that he is weaponizing the Department of Justice to attack states, California in particular, in a bid to prove his delusions correct, and perhaps as a bonus, undermine democracy.

A few months ago, the DOJ came to the state of California and claimed it had a list of 190,000 people it believed were illegally registered to vote. That list has since dropped to 20,000. But with all the investigative power of the government hard at work on this, only 28 people in California have been indicted by the feds during this no-holds-barred effort, and it looks as though not all of those cases will hold up.

Undeterred, Trump lawyers tried to get a California judge to order the state (and Los Angeles) to set aside ballots that it claims to have doubts about. They asked the judge in that case for a temporary restraining order forcing L.A. County to do that, and the judge agreed to rule on that request early next week, in an already-expedited fashion.

But then the Trump lawyers learned about all that ballot processing and demanded the judge instead rule by Saturday afternoon — though the reasoning here seems iffy. When the federal judge assigned to the case didn’t rule by Saturday, an absurd ask that didn’t even allow enough time for lawyers to file briefs, the feds ran to the 9th Circuit, claiming that failing to rule on Saturday was a de facto denial of their request.

Basically, it seems the Trump lawyers were arguing two things. First, that once ballots are counted, they can’t be uncounted, and if there are illegal ballots, that hurts all voters. Sure, OK.

But again, there is no evidence this is happening in any widespread fashion, and the lists of potential vote scofflaws compiled by the government have been shown to be error-ridden. They may also involve the use of a mysterious non-government “third party” to gather the information that not even the Trump lawyers could identify Sunday.

DOJ lawyers also claimed they had just learned that once a ballot is taken out of the envelope, there was no way to reconnect that ballot to the voter who cast it — because our votes are anonymous. Therefore, the 20,000 ballots had to be grabbed before they were separated from the documents inside.

The lawyers did not explain why they needed to know how a person voted to confirm they illegally voted. The envelopes are retained by county elections officials, but apparently the Trump lawyers feel it’s critical to tie them to particular votes.

But here’s the thing — there are simply not enough illegal voters to sway a Los Angeles election, or a California one for that matter. We have a system to ferrets out problematic ballots right now, and a separate criminal system that can hold illegal voters accountable. Two weeks before an election isn’t a time to demand ballots be withheld — unless you’re trying to undermine trust.

The appellate judges did not seem impressed by the federal laywers’ arguments, questioning more than once if the 9th Circuit even had jurisdiction since states are in charge of elections, not the federal government. There was even some reading of the 10th Amendment. You know, the one the don’t-tread-on-me types love that reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States.”

We should expect a ruling sooner rather than later, but the real question remains, why the emergency? The DOJ is involved in another voting lawsuit in Washington, D.C., where the plaintiffs, led by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, have asked for a restraining order of their own stopping the government from creating national lists of who it thinks should vote, and using janky, secretive information gathering to do it.

It’s also true that the original case was reassigned from a Trump-appointed judge to one appointed by Bill Clinton. There has been speculation the switch may have been viewed unfavorably by the feds, though the Clinton-appointed judge, David O. Carter, was given the case because of his experience in the subject matter.

The D.C. restraining order could be decided in the next few days. I’m not saying the cases are related, or that the judge should or does matter, but the Trump DOJ’s argument in California is basically that its list of 20,000 is really solid, reliable information.

If the D.C. federal judge rules first that the government information gathering is potentially both an overreach and sloppy, it makes it that much harder for another judge, or the appellate court for that matter, to rule that the list is so critical that they must step in.

So maybe there is an emergency.

Just not the one the government is claiming.

Maeve Enright of Chaminade is seeing the fruits of her labor. She was a key figure in lobbying Chaminade’s administration to add flag football to the sports program last year.

Her determination, presentation and lobbying made a difference. The issue was finding space to practice. Once that was handled, the team was approved.

Now, in its second season, Chaminade has reached the Southern Section Division 2 quarterfinals after a 20-18 win over Hart. Next up is a Tuesday game against Anaheim Canyon.

Enright has been an important defensive player for the Eagles. She also has a 4.5 grade-point average and plays soccer, club soccer and softball.

Talk about doing the most — and then some — with your high school days.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Coalition says it destroyed ballistic missile launchers as well as tunnels and a depot used by the Houthis to store missiles.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis has said it carried out a military operation “aimed at neutralising sources of threat”, as the armed group claimed attacks on infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said on Monday its forces destroyed four ballistic missile launchers and five tunnels used by the Houthis to store missiles.

In a post on X, he also said coalition forces attacked a missile depot, adding that the operation “focused on cutting off Houthi militia supply lines between areas under their control”.

The operation also targeted Houthi “fortifications, gatherings of their members, and their military equipment along the front lines inside Yemen”.

The Houthis – also known as Ansar Allah, Arabic for Supporters of God – have carried out a wave of strikes in recent weeks against Saudi airports and other infrastructure. This follows a major escalation in fighting in Yemen’s war, in which Saudi Arabia is supporting the internationally recognised government fighting the Houthis.

A Houthi attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid international airport this month killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade.

The attacks led to the airport’s temporary closure, forcing the postponement of Saudi Arabia’s flagship investment conference until 2027 and disrupting travel plans for thousands of passengers.

The airport reopened and flights resumed on Sunday with the Houthis warning travellers to avoid the facility, calling it a “military target.”

Houthis claim new attacks

The Houthis later claimed they attacked the airport “with a ballistic missile, striking the target with precision”, according to a post by Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree on social media on Monday.

Al-Maliki said on Monday that Saudi air defences “intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards Riyadh.”

Saree also said that the Houthis had struck oil pumping stations in Saudi Arabia with drones.

In a separate statement, Saree also claimed responsibility for more ballistic missile attacks on “enemy” forces and weapons depots in Yemen.

He said the attacks targeted positions in the Salah al-Din area of Aden governorate and the al-Wahat area of Lahij governorate.

Yemen’s war reignited in the summer when the Houthis announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, which intervened in 2015 to lead a coalition aimed at restoring the internationally recognised government that was ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in 2014.

A 2022 truce that had halted most fighting collapsed last month, as the Houthis launched a lightning offensive, seizing much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast from government forces and also attacking Saudi energy facilities and airports.

Yemen’s government forces this month launched the “Operation Yemen Dawn” counteroffensive, aimed at recapturing territory held by the Houthis.

‘Everything is shaking’

As operations resumed at Riyadh airport, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and discussed a key air defence system.

Mitsotakis “responded favourably to the kingdom’s request to keep the Patriot system in Saudi Arabia, given the current challenging circumstances”, his office said, referring to a battery of the US-made air defence system deployed by Greece to Saudi Arabia in 2021, which protects energy infrastructure in Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast.

On Sunday, the Saudi-led military coalition said air defences intercepted at least 10 ballistic missiles.

The kingdom’s civil defence agency said two people were injured in the south by falling debris, also reporting damage to several buildings and vehicles.

Images released by the kingdom’s official press agency showed a building with part of its upper facade destroyed, exposing metal rods. Another image captured large windows shattered, with shards of glass strewn across the pavement and part of the road.

After much change on Strictly Come Dancing, could we be about to see more? Judging panel conversations are yet to be had and there’s speculation two aren’t sure

BBC bosses are said to be growing concerned that Strictly’s popular judging panel could be about to be split up.

Following a huge revamp this series that saw Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe, and Johannes Radebe replace departuring long-term co-hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, more big changes could be around the corner.

Producers are starting to fear Shirley Ballas and Motsi Mabuse may not be back, it has been claimed, with other big names already dropping hints that they will return in 2027. Despite contract talks officially not yet starting, it has been suggested that Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood have suggested they will be back.

To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed.

There is doubt over head coach Shirley’s future after she quickstepping over the Atlantic after landing a gig on the US counterpart Dancing With The Stars.

There is little doubt Craig wants to carry on. The star has served on the judging panel since the inaugural series of the beloved show in 2004, while Anton assumed his position at the table in 2021.

Now Strictly fans are facing an anxious wait to see if long-serving Shirley – who would be celebraing a decade on the show if she stayed – and Motsi, who has been on the panel since 2019, will remain.

“Strictly love the current judging panel and are really keen to try and persuade everyone to come back next year,” a source told The Sun, “Contract negotiations won’t start until the current series is wrapped, but already Craig and Anton have made it clear they intend to return.

“Motsi and Shirley are yet to make up their minds. Shirley in particular could be a flight risk for bosses, especially if her guest appearance on Dancing With The Stars goes well.”

The Mirror has approached reps for Shirley and Motsi as well as Strictly for comment.

But another insider told us: “This is likely based on the fact that Craig and Anton are both performing in theatre tours next autumn, with the websites for both productions advising that Anton and Craig won’t appear at the Saturday dates of these shows – making it clear that they’re expected to be in Elstree recording Strictly on Saturdays. Shirley and Motsi don’t have theatre tours taking place.”

The BBC has meanwhile responded to claims it has already decided to change its new presenting line-up after just a few weeks.

Presenting pro Emma has predictably been a safe pair of hands since the new series kicked off in September. However, while some viewers are enjoying the camaraderie between the new trio, others have expressed concerns about the chemistry between comedian Josh.

Professional dancer, Johannes, has been accused of being out of his depth by some in the former Clauditorium.

Claiming bosses at the Beeb are aware the new format doesn’t work and are concerned the jewel in the broadcaster’s crown has become something of a “laughing stock”, a source said to be close to Strictly allegedly told the Daily Mail: “It doesn’t work. Not only have many of the traditional viewers stopped watching, the show has become the butt of jokes, a laughing stock.

“It’s like those choosing were trying to be kooky and cool, and they saw something that might appeal to young people.”

It’s thought that mum-of-three, Emma, 50, will stay on Strictly, but Josh’s future could be in doubt. “It isn’t working,” says the source said to be close to the show.

Meanwhile, dancer, Johannes, has also come under fire, with one new theory suggesting that the South African star may become one of the Strictly judges next year

However, responding to the comments, the BBC told the Mirror that the anonymous source comments were “pure and utter speculation”.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

A Jet2 passenger plane was filmed veering off the runway onto the grass at Birmingham Airport on Sunday, as Storm Boelo winds whipped across the Midlands travel hub

The terrifying moment a Jet2 passenger plane veered off the runway in strong Storm Boelo winds has been captured on video

In the clip, the passenger jet is seen approaching the runway. As it touches down on the tarmac, the plane bucks up a little, causing the aircraft to move around on its axis in the air. When the plane next touches down, its nose is directed off the runway.

The plane’s speed causes it to run off the tarmac and onto the grass, with dust and mud from the wheels billowing into the air. The plane’s pilots managed to correct its course, veering it back onto the tarmac and straightening it up.

No one was injured in the landing.

Were you on the flight? Email webtravel@reachplc.com

A spokesperson for Jet2 told the Mirror: “Flight LS1310 from Venice to Birmingham temporarily moved off the runway after landing at Birmingham Airport, due to exceptional weather conditions caused by Storm Boelo. The aircraft immediately returned to the runway and taxied to the stand. We can confirm that everyone disembarked as normal.”

The landing was one of the dicier moments on a weekend in which gusts reached 80 miles per hour in parts of the country, causing dozens of cancellations and lengthy delays. There were also fatalities caused by the storm.

A 60-year-old man died after being struck by a falling tree in Dumfries and Galloway during Storm Boelo. Police Scotland said the man was on a road at Mid Kelton, near Castle Douglas, when the tree fell on him at around 10.30am on Sunday.

A spokesperson said: “We were made aware of a 60-year-old man having been struck by a falling tree on a minor road at Mid Kelton near Castle Douglas around 10.30am on Sunday October 25 2026. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. There are no suspicious circumstances and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal in due course.”

The Met Office has warned of possible injuries and danger to life from flying debris, alongside the risk of damage to buildings, power cuts and travel disruption. An amber wind warning came into force at 9pm on Saturday and remained in place until 9pm on Sunday. Only Orkney remained under a yellow warning.

Network Rail said most train services were expected to return to normal on Monday, but advised passengers to check their journeys online before travelling. On Sunday, nine of the rail operators suffered from severe disruptions, with Scotrail forced to suspend journeys on entire sections of its network.

Teams have cleared fallen trees and debris from tracks and carried out repairs to overhead lines and flooding-related damage that disrupted the network.

Gary Hopkirk, route director at Network Rail Scotland, said: “It’s been a really challenging weekend for Scotland’s railway and particularly for the teams who’ve been out in some very difficult conditions responding to whatever the weather has thrown at us. Our focus throughout has been on keeping people safe and trains moving wherever possible.

“Now the worst of the weather has passed, our attention is on getting the railway back to normal. We’ll be working as quickly as we can, but we won’t compromise on safety. We know disruption is frustrating and we really appreciate the patience people have shown this weekend while our teams do everything they can to get everyone moving again.”

Several roads and bridges across Scotland and Northern Ireland have been forced to close in the weather, while many of the ferry services between the Scottish mainland and the islands, as well as the island of Ireland and Britain, were cancelled.

Of CalMac’s 30 ferry services scheduled for Sunday, 27 were cancelled, with some suspensions expected to continue until Monday.

The provided text explores the historical origins and modern significance of Austria’s National Day, which is celebrated annually on October 26th. It explains how the Austrian Parliament officially enacted the Declaration of Neutrality in 1955 following a decade of joint occupation by foreign powers including the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and France. The author highlights that the Soviet Union made this permanent neutral stance a strict requirement before signing the preceding State Treaty and withdrawing its military forces. Over the decades, this pledge has transformed into a fundamental pillar of Austrian identity that is firmly protected by both domestic and international statutes. However, contemporary discussions continue to question whether this historic policy remains entirely valid given the nation’s ongoing membership in the European Union.

WASHINGTON — At first glance, President Trump’s decision to relax U.S. sanctions on Russia despite its continuing invasion of Ukraine was a dramatic break from principles that guided American foreign policy for most of a century.

Since the end of World War II, U.S.-Russian relations have oscillated between hostility and friendship, but one element was consistent: When Russia tried to take over one if its neighbors, the United States pushed back.

This time, though, the United States appeared to favor the aggressor, not the victim.

“The Trump administration has abandoned any pretense of being an honest broker,” Richard N. Haass, a former senior State Department official under then-President George W. Bush, wrote last week. “It has gone all in on Russia’s side.”

The break from long-standing tradition was real, but it should not have been entirely surprising.

Trump has long expressed admiration for Russia’s autocratic leader, Vladimir Putin — part of a syndrome one of his former aides, Fiona Hill, has called “autocrat envy.”

“He wants to rule like them,” she said, referring to the president’s bromances with Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and other strongmen.

Meanwhile, Trump often expresses disdain for democratically elected leaders of smaller countries, and he reserves a special loathing for the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

He has repeatedly said Zelensky was foolish to resist Russia’s 2022 invasion because, in his view, the larger country is almost certain to win the war.

“Russia is a massive country,” he said this month. “Even if it loses a million soldiers, it still has a million more. Ukraine doesn’t have that kind of manpower.”

Moreover, Trump has long believed U.S. companies could reap an economic bonanza from Russia’s resource-rich economy. As a real estate magnate, he spent 30 years seeking deals in Moscow; in 2008, his son Donald Jr. said Russians had provided the Trump Organization “a lot of our assets.”

In the short run, the president hopes to boost Republican prospects in next week’s midterm elections by buying diesel fuel from Russia — a move aimed at lowering prices at the cost of bolstering Putin’s war economy. (It hasn’t worked; the price of diesel has risen slightly since Trump’s decision.)

But he has a longer-term goals as well. He has long believed better relations between the United States and Russia would be good for both countries, no matter who’s in power in Moscow. And he has long yearned openly for a Nobel Peace Prize — and one way might be to arrange a durable ceasefire in Ukraine.

All those factors have led Trump to overturn two major elements of traditional U.S. foreign policy.

Instead of supporting Ukraine, the victim of a foreign military invasion, he’s been pressing the Zelensky to accept Putin’s demands for territory.

“President Trump still wants a personal relationship with Putin, and he wants to change the nature of the bilateral U.S.-Russian relationship. Ukraine is in the way. So what President Trump is trying to do is get Ukraine out of the way. … President Trump wants Zelensky to capitulate,” Hill said.

“Zelensky has to want to settle this war, and if he doesn’t, I think it’s going to be a very bad thing,” Trump said last week.

As he issued that advice, Ukraine’s army was experiencing interruptions with three forms of U.S. military help: Starlink, the communications system it uses to guide its anti-drone missiles; U.S.-provided early radar warnings of Russian missile attacks; and supplies of Patriot anti-missile weapons. U.S. officials claimed the three incidents were not deliberate — but to Ukrainians, they felt like a warning.

Meanwhile, instead of putting pressure on Putin through the traditional means of economic sanctions, Trump said he was trying to entice the Russian leader to negotiate by giving him preemptive rewards.

“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” he explained on Truth Social. “Great progress is being made.”

But signs of that progress were hard to find. In St. Petersburg last week, Trump’s personal envoy, Steve Witkoff, presented Putin with a ceasefire proposal that the Americans negotiated with Ukraine and European countries. A top Putin aide dismissed the document, saying it “contained little of real value.”

Instead, the Russian president offered to increase Russian fertilizer exports to U.S. farmers. And he said he hoped Trump would join him at a summit meeting in China with Xi.

Ukraine has not been invited to that meeting, which prompted Haass to resurrect an old diplomatic aphorism: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Haass and other veterans of U.S. negotiations with Russia fear that Putin is merely stalling for time and pocketing Trump’s concessions while he tries to grind Ukraine down with missile attacks on Kyiv and other cities.

“If Trump and Witkoff were serious, they would give Putin 15 days to say yes to their ceasefire proposal — and if he doesn’t, they would impose new and tougher sanctions,” said Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. “There are still a lot of things they can do that would put Russia in a corner.”

But that has not been Trump’s inclination so far.

The irony, Hill said, is that even if Trump gets his way, that may not produce the victory he appears to expect.

“Putin and Trump are not the only actors in this,” she said. “Ukraine is not anybody’s to give. Its not Putin’s to have, and it’s not Zelensky’s. … This whole war is about Ukrainians wanting the right to determine their own future. It’s not Putin’s right or anyone else’s. It’s not Donald Trump’s to give away.”

Algeria’s parliament has approved a proposal to deploy troops to neighbouring Niger, in a major shift in the North African nation’s noninterventionist military doctrine.

Algeria’s lower house, the People’s National Assembly, ratified the deployment on Sunday after the upper house, the Council of the Nation, unanimously approved the proposal earlier in the day.

Details about the number of soldiers and when they will be deployed have yet to be made public.

It comes nearly two months after Algeria dispatched four Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 jets, a transport aircraft and an aerial refuelling aircraft to Niamey, following what Algerian authorities described as an attempt to destabilise Niger’s military-led government.

The step comes amid a thawing of relations between Algiers and Niamey as Niger’s President Abdourahamane Tchiani visited Algeria in February and, months later, his defence minister, Salifou Mody, ⁠⁠travelled to Algiers to discuss security cooperation.

The shooting down of a Malian drone by the Algerian army last April triggered a diplomatic crisis after Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso recalled their ambassadors from Algiers. The condemnation of the 2023 coup in Niger by Algeria had also strained ties.

The troop deployment is reportedly intended to protect oil installations belonging to Algeria’s state-owned energy company, Sonatrach. Troops would be sent “to protect Algeria’s economic and strategic interests, particularly its oil facilities in Niger”, The Associated Press news agency reported, quoting Algerian Senator Belkacem Boulghiti.

It also comes as Algiers seeks to deepen security cooperation in the Sahel, a vast belt of territory stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, including several countries along Algeria’s southern frontier.

Why does this matter?

Algeria has historically been reluctant to deploy its armed forces beyond its borders, reflecting a longstanding foreign policy built around sovereignty, noninterference and opposition to foreign military intervention.

But that does not mean it has never done so.

Algerian forces participated in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, although overseas military deployments have remained exceptionally rare in the decades since.

A constitutional revision in 2020 formalised the conditions under which Algerian troops could be sent abroad.

Under Article 91, the president may authorise such deployments, provided they receive the backing of at least two-thirds of the members of each chamber of parliament.

The constitution also provides for Algerian participation in peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations, the African Union and the Arab League.

The move is particularly significant given Algeria’s military capabilities. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the country spent more than $25bn on its armed forces in 2025, making it Africa’s largest military spender.

But the decision also comes against a backdrop of growing diplomatic tensions and shifting regional alliances.

In September, Algeria severed diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, accusing Abu Dhabi of repeated “hostile” and “provocative actions” without publicly detailing the incidents behind the decision.

The two countries have long disagreed over several regional issues, including Western Sahara and the UAE’s alleged interference in North African and Sahelian affairs.

Taken together, these developments suggest that Algeria is becoming increasingly willing to assert its security interests beyond its borders, even as it continues to emphasise the principles of sovereignty and noninterference.

Why the Sahel?

For Algeria, instability in the Sahel is not a distant security concern.

The country shares thousands of kilometres of borders with Mali, Niger and Libya, making developments in its southern neighbourhood particularly consequential.

The roots of the current security crisis can be traced, in part, to the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi’s government in Libya in 2011.

At the height of the Arab Spring uprisings, Algeria took a firm stance against foreign military intervention and warned that the disintegration of the Libyan state could destabilise neighbouring countries.

Those concerns were not unfounded.

Following Gaddafi’s overthrow, weapons and armed fighters, including Tuareg who had served in Libya, spread into neighbouring countries.

Their return helped fuel a rebellion in northern Mali in 2012, contributing to a security crisis that preceded the military overthrow of President Amadou Toumani Toure that March.

Over the following decade, armed rebellion expanded across parts of the Sahel, particularly Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Since 2012, those three countries alone have experienced six military coups: three in Mali, two in Burkina Faso and one in Niger.

Many of the coups unfolded against a backdrop of deteriorating security, with military leaders accusing civilian governments of failing to contain increasingly powerful armed groups.

But insecurity was not the only factor. Political grievances, governance failures and rivalries within armed forces also contributed to the coups.

Who else is operating in the Sahel?

Another factor shaping Algeria’s calculations is the changing presence of foreign military forces across the region.

For more than a decade, France was a central player in counterterrorism operations in the Sahel, deploying thousands of troops to combat armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

But that military presence has largely unravelled.

Following successive coups and deteriorating diplomatic relations, France withdrew its troops from Mali in August 2022, Burkina Faso in February 2023 and Niger in December 2023.

The withdrawals were accompanied by growing anti-French sentiment and demands from military governments for greater control over their security policies.

Niger demanded the departure of approximately 1,500 French soldiers following its July 2023 coup.

Just months later, in April 2024, approximately 100 Russian military personnel arrived in Niamey, bringing equipment and providing training to Nigerien forces.

The personnel were associated with Africa Corps, a Russian paramilitary group close to the Kremlin.

Moscow has also expanded its military cooperation with Mali and Burkina Faso, where Russian personnel have undertaken training, advisory and security roles, including combat support in Mali.

The United States has also seen its military footprint shrink.

In 2024, Washington withdrew approximately 1,000 soldiers from Niger after the military government terminated their security cooperation agreement. The withdrawal included personnel stationed at an important US drone base near Agadez.

The result has been a significant realignment of the Sahel’s security partnerships, with Western military forces departing and Russia assuming a more prominent role.

What does Algeria stand to gain?

For Algiers, the proposed deployment to Niger carries immediate security and wider strategic implications.

At the most practical level, protecting Algerian energy investments would help safeguard the country’s economic interests in a region affected by armed rebellions and political instability, including the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP), which would transport Nigerian gas to Europe and traverse Niger and Algeria.

It could also deepen cooperation with Niger, whose military government has sought new security partners since taking power in 2023.

More broadly, the move would allow Algeria to establish a direct military presence in a neighbouring country at a time when the Sahel’s security architecture is being reshaped.

“We are not sending our soldiers to wage war in Niger, but for a mission to secure economic infrastructure,” Senator Boulghiti told reporters after the vote. “It is simply an adaptation of our doctrine to evolving circumstances so we can rise to the new challenges imposed by the situation in the Sahel region.”

A man dedicates U2’s “With or Without You” to the ex-boyfriend who ghosted him. A woman sings “I’m Coming Home” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the late Tim Curry. The room pounds their fists on the tables to the bridge of Metallica’s “One,” a harrowing anthem about the horrors of war.

This is Blue Mondays, a karaoke night dedicated to sad songs that’s become a ritual of catharsis for its regulars. It happens the first Monday of every month at the Fable, where singers compete for what KJ (karaoke jockey) Teri Gamble calls, “the most coveted shirt in all of Eagle Rock”: a blue T-shirt featuring a pajama-clad Garfield (the cat, not the president) with the caption “I hate Mondays.”

Gamble, an actor, musician and podcaster, has sung karaoke since childhood with their babysitter. They host several karaoke events, including a Broadway night at Akbar in Silver Lake, and have helmed Blue Mondays for about two years.

Singers gather at the Fable on the first Monday of the month to belt out their saddest songs.

Gamble doesn’t always choose the best singer to win the Garfield shirt. They consider performers who make a song their own, get everyone singing along, or seem like they need a win.

“There was a girl who … had a cast on her arm. She cried her whole song. I said, ‘you don’t have to tell me what happened, but I love you and I hope everything gets better.’ And then I definitely gave her the shirt that night,” Gamble said.

Thom Sigsby, who owns the Fable with his wife, Monica Katzenell Sigsby, enjoys the low-key performances. “Someone did [Sara Bareilles’ “She Used to Be Mine”] and it was just devastating. There wasn’t a single moment of feeling like she realized there was anyone else in the room,” he said.

You’d expect long faces nursing their drinks, but it’s often the opposite. There’s something freeing about exorcising negativity through song that keeps people coming back. There’s community here, across the dedicated regulars and the staff — Gamble’s an incredible singer, and bartender Megha Wescombe absolutely crushes “Maybe This Time” from “Cabaret.” As Nicole Kidman might say, “Heartbreak feels good in a place like this.”

Patrons cheer after a performance during Blue Mondays. Regulars tell stories of forging new friendships at the event.

Mel Minghelli can perform both parts in “Phantom of the Oprah” thanks to her wide vocal range.

“I think I end up feeling less sad about my own personal sads because we are sharing them together,” Gamble said. “So it feels like the burden is lessened by the end of the night every time.”

Akhil Indurti, a software engineer who also performs musical improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade, won October’s shirt. He sang System of a Down’s “Chop Suey” (frontman Serj Tankian owns Kavat Cafe, two doors down), though his go-to is Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.”

“I think oftentimes [people] listen to sad songs because they’re sometimes more musically interesting,” he said. “They’re not just a major chord progression. It’s not usually just sadness. There’s nuance and subtlety. There’s some storytelling.”

Soraya Sebghati won September’s shirt with Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time.” She fronts the band Night Talks, and said sometimes people tell her she shouldn’t be allowed to do karaoke because she’s a professional. She still loves it, both as a performer and a spectator, and — despite her seemingly upbeat demeanor — enjoys Blue Mondays as a “safe space for the freaks and the goths and people who want to sing sad stuff.”

Fable owner Thom Sigsby says his karaoke book, with more than 12,000 songs, may feel antiquated compared with digital karaoke platforms, but that’s the point.

“I’m the kind of person, when I’m sad, I like to listen to more sad music. I’m also a big cinephile. Bleak Week at Cinematheque’s [Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair] is my favorite week of programming of the year,” she said.

Fable owner Thom Sigsby says his karaoke book, with more than 12,000 songs, may feel antiquated compared to digital karaoke platforms, but that’s the point.

Dave Child lays it all out on the karaoke stage.

The Fable’s crowd and the songs they choose are eclectic, spanning generations and musical tastes. Some songs you’re guaranteed to hear every time — Radiohead’s “Creep” and Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” are staples — but some performers choose more subversive tracks.

For example, OutKast’s “Hey Ya” sounds happy, but it’s about loveless relationships. Barry Manilow’s high-energy “Copacabana” describes a woman who drank her life away following her lover’s murder. Gamble recalled a performer who writhed on the floor while sob-singing Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5,” which could be sad considering the protagonist’s inability to maintain a steady relationship.

Blue Mondays didn’t start at the Fable. Sigsby was already a karaoke enthusiast when he began KJing at Bigfoot Lodge in Atwater Village about 14 years ago. By his own admission, he “got way too into it,” spending his own money to add songs to his book. A former theater kid and commercial actor, karaoke gave Sigsby a new way to express himself on stage and make friends. He and his wife even bonded over karaoke before they married.

Lyrics for “Solitaire,” a Neil Sedaka ballad, plays during a karaoke performance.

Given that Mondays are usually slow, Sigsby and his co-workers began adding shticks: single-artist blocks, nights where KJs chose singers’ songs, and Blue Mondays, which offered a free “Prozac” shot for each depressing tune (a mystery blend with an on-theme hue). Free booze — which singers still receive today — was a motivator, but so was the theme, which seemed to “resonate” more than the others.

Sigsby later founded his own karaoke company, HiHo Karaoke. It operates at bars including Ye Rustic Inn, Glendale’s the Gold Rail and Bigfoot Lodge, whose own Blue Mondays, Sigsby said, draws a younger crowd. Compared with some karaoke outfits, Sigsby admits HiHo may appear “antiquated,” but that’s intentional. “There’s no app, there [are] no [paper] slips. You literally just come talk to us because we want to meet you and talk to you and have a relationship with the singer[s],” he said.

The same goes for HiHo’s book. Streaming services may offer 50,000-song catalogs, but HiHo’s 12,000-plus book is curated by its hosts and clientele. Licensing each song ensures musicians and rights holders are paid, and lets people request the songs they’ve been dying to sing, from emo deep cuts to Puccini operas.

Brian Collins performs during Blue Mondays.

In 2019, Sigsby and his wife purchased the Fable (formerly the Old Chalet and before that, the Black Boar) less than six months before the pandemic. It was after stay-at-home orders lifted that Blue Mondays really took off. “I think it really was just this need for everyone to reconnect coming out of COVID and also have a safe space … where they really could emote,” he said.

Through the Eaton fire in nearby Altadena and today’s economic uncertainty — Sigsby notes the first Monday means everyone’s just paid rent — the Fable has continued to offer that space.

Regular Mel Minghelli, whose impressive four-octave range let her nail both the Phantom and Christine in “The Phantom of the Opera,” said, “I think in the way that sad music has helped people as a comfort, it’s really nice to be able to perform it and have other people … hear it or also feel comforted.” Minghelli used to treat her unique talent as a “party trick,” but now wants to record her own music with singer-songwriter Johnny Mace, another regular she met at the Fable.

Mace chose Calum Scott’s cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” that evening, though he said he often does Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” He described the Fable as a “magical” place where he’s found numerous friends and opportunities. “I was in the deepest depression and coming out here got my confidence back and I found my voice again. I [had given up] on my music career. I was really hurting and this place gave me life again so I owe this place a lot,” he said.

He won the shirt once singing the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” but has since given it away, to whom he can’t remember. Why? Unlike Garfield, he likes Mondays.

The next Blue Monday is Nov. 2, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., at the Fable, 1630 Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock.

The Farsh Al-Hawa area in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank is unrecognisable after Israeli forces demolished a three-story building and industrial facilities there. Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds the West Bank portfolio in the Ministry of Defence, said he ordered their destruction.

It all started on Friday, when two Palestinians attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in Farsh Al-Hawa, killing two soldiers and injuring others.

Since then, Hebron, the West Bank’s economic capital, has been attacked and put under lockdown by Israeli forces.

Israel has announced a sweeping military assault in the city, targeting the neighbourhood of the gunmen, who were killed on Friday. Israeli forces have already forcibly displaced more than 2,000 Palestinians. City officials say almost half of the displaced are babies and children under 18, along with 81 pregnant women and 204 elderly.

Fahd Ahmaro was forced to leave his home, along with his family. He told Al Jazeera that he planned to stay but felt compelled to seek shelter outside his neighbourhood because the women and children were terrified.

“We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Our savings, belongings and documents are all in the house,” he said. “I tried to go back after I got my family out safely, but I couldn’t. It’s not safe any more.”

Palestinian authorities in Hebron have declared a state of emergency and created a crisis group, bringing together government agencies, the private sector and civil society, to respond after thousands of people in the city were forced to flee their homes.

Riyadh Khamis, who serves on the committee, told Al Jazeera that philanthropists who could not bear the thought of fellow Palestinians staying in temporary shelters opened their homes to the displaced.

“Hebron is known for its social solidarity and generosity. Our city was the first to provide aid during the COVID lockdown and during the genocide,” Khamis told Al Jazeera. “Today, our neighbours needed help so we all rallied.”

Real estate developer Mohamed Al-Rujoob is one of the philanthropists who sprang to action at the start of the assault on the city.

Al-Rujoob, who owns several apartments in Dura, a town close to Hebron, announced that the properties would be made available for displaced families, prompting other owners to do the same. He now hosts three extended families in his apartments, including 30 children.

“We must preserve people’s dignity. Today, we host these good people. Tomorrow, who knows? It might be us who need shelter. We’re all under the same occupation and we’re all vulnerable,” he said.

The Israeli army says Hebron is on lockdown, which affects nearly 1 million Palestinians who live in the city and the rest of the district.

Restrictions on movement have had a severe impact on the West Bank’s largest district. Schools have moved to online classes, while Hebron’s universities have made similar arrangements for their 18,000 students until the Israeli operation ends.

The measures are essential for Palestinian students who are stuck in their homes and neighbourhoods, including the besieged Fawwar refugee camp in Hebron, home to nearly 8,000 Palestinians. Israeli soldiers closed the camp’s entrance gate on Saturday, barring residents from entering or leaving, even on foot.

Abdel Fattah Al-Ttitti, a school teacher who lives in the camp and works in a Hebron school, said “we are locked in”.

“If, God forbid, somebody needs medical attention, we may be able to get them to the clinic in Masafer Yatta, but that clinic is poorly equipped. If there’s a medical emergency, they can’t help,” Al-Ttitti told Al Jazeera.

He is glad that schools announced online classes. “Until this campaign is over, there’s no other way,” he said.

Many in Hebron believe that Israel’s military campaign in the city has a political dimension, with Israelis heading to the polls on Tuesday for a general election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition is vying for every right-wing vote. Violence against Palestinians has proved an expedient campaign tactic for politicians such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister of Settlement Affairs, Orit Strook.

Both right-wing ministers have homes in illegal settlements in the Hebron area and support the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza, which they refer to as “encouraging voluntary migration”.