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Ottawa claims the key ally of Indian PM Modi was behind a campaign of violence and intimidation on Canadian soil.

India has denied that Home Minister Amit Shah plotted to target Sikh activists on Canadian soil as it criticised Canada over the “absurd and baseless” allegations.

Shah, 60, oversees India’s internal security forces as home minister. He is viewed as the country’s second-most powerful person after Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Saturday, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, told journalists that New Delhi had summoned the representative of the Canadian High Commission on Friday and lodged a strong protest.

“The government of India protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references” about Shah, Jaiswal said, by Canada’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison.

The Canadian minister told the national security committee that the government considers Shah the architect of the campaign against Sikh separatists in the country, which included the assassination of an activist.

The Canadian government has accused India of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan campaigner.

Modi’s government has branded Khalistan activists who belong to the Sikh community as “terrorists” and threats to its security. The activists demand an independent homeland, known as Khalistan, to be carved out of India.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the national police have in the past said there were “clear indications” of India’s involvement in the murder, as well as a broad campaign of intimidation, violence and other threats against Khalistan activists.

Canada’s spy agency also issued a report warning that India was using cybertechnology to track Sikh separatists abroad and had also stepped up cyberattacks against Canadian government networks.

“Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties,” Jaiswal said on Saturday, referring to Morrison’s accusations.

India has repeatedly dismissed Canada’s allegations, which have sent diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Ottawa into a freefall.

Canada has already expelled Indian diplomats that it linked to the campaign it claims has targeted Sikhs, while India has responded with its expulsion of Canadian officials.

On Wednesday, US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said Canada’s recent allegations about Shah “are concerning”.

The United States has also charged a former Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, with allegedly directing a foiled plot to murder Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen and Indian critic in New York City.

“Not all songs have a story,” David Foster says. “But these five do.”

He would know: In a career that stretches across more than half a century — and which took him from his native Canada to his longtime home of Los Angeles — Foster has written, produced, arranged, played on, executive-ized or reality-TV-coached the performance of an endless array of songs, among them some of the biggest (and most shamelessly sentimental) in pop history.

Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me”? “The Prayer” by Dion and Andrea Bocelli? “Glory of Love” from “The Karate Kid Part II”? All Foster joints, which doesn’t even get to the work he’s done with — deep breath here — Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Chaka Khan, Madonna, Michael Bublé, Kenny Rogers, Josh Groban, Lionel Richie and Mary J. Blige.

On Sunday night at the Hollywood Bowl, Foster will look back at this lifetime of songs in an all-star concert to mark his 75th birthday. The lineup includes Bocelli, Bublé, Groban, Jennifer Hudson, Charlie Puth, Kristin Chenoweth, Brian McKnight, El Debarge and, not least, Foster’s wife, singer and actor Katharine McPhee.

Ahead of the show, Foster got on the phone between tour dates to tell the stories behind five of his signature tunes.

Earth, Wind & Fire, ‘After the Love Has Gone’ (1979)

Co-written by Foster, Jay Graydon and Bill Champlin — and sung with silky finesse by Earth, Wind & Fire mastermind Maurice White — this complicated ballad from the band’s double-platinum “I Am” album earned Foster the first of his 16 Grammy Awards. Foster later released a version by his and Graydon’s short-lived soft-rock band, Airplay.

I was pitching an album to [Motown founder] Berry Gordy, one of my very first productions, and he was lukewarm on it. I said, “But wait — I have more!” But I didn’t have more. He said, “Show me.” So I went to the piano and sat down, and I swear to God, the chorus of “After the Love Has Gone” fell out in real time.

You didn’t have anything when you sat down at the piano.
I had nothing. Totally bulls—ed him.

Tommy Mottola wrote in his memoir that you offered the song to Hall & Oates before Earth, Wind & Fire.
I did offer it to Hall & Oates because I was producing them at the time. But the song didn’t fit with their program — they were trying to go more rock. Then I played it for Maurice White, and I was even more nervous than with Berry Gordy. Maurice, I think, was the greatest. He said, “I’d like to record that song,” which made my heart pound. I said, “When?” He said, “Tonight — and you’re gonna play on it.”

“After the Love Has Gone” peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100. Remember what blocked it from No. 1?
I sure do: “My Sca-rotum.”

I wondered whether losing to “My Sharona” was particularly vexing.
In retrospect, I love that record too. And I became friends with the drummer [of the Knack]. But yeah, it was a little bit annoying that it was [sings “My Sharona” riff] and we had seemingly so much substance to our song. But, you know, the public doesn’t care about that.

What do you think now of the Airplay version of “After the Love Has Gone”?
It’s a little slick.

Might be a little slow too.
One of the reasons it feels slow is because when we recorded it with Earth, Wind & Fire, we didn’t have a click track. I said, “Maurice, we gotta do it again — we’re playing twice as fast at the end as we are at the beginning.” Listen to it — you’ll hear it. He said, “I don’t care — feels good to me.”

He was right.
He was always right.

Chicago, ‘Hard to Say I’m Sorry’ (1982)

Chicago had long since made its name as a swinging jazz-rock outfit when Foster came onboard for a creative and commercial reboot led by him and the band’s singer, Peter Cetera.

We had finished “Chicago 16,” and Irving Azoff got ahold of us and said, “We have this movie called ‘Summer Lovers,’ and we’d like you guys to write a song for it.’” So Peter came over to my house in Toluca Lake and we banged that sucker out in about an hour. It always helps when you have a movie as a co-writer.

You’re saying you had a theme or an emotion to go off.
We had a scene, actually. In the movie, the song starts — Peter’s going, “Everybody needs…” — and there’s this moped in the distance that Peter Gallagher’s riding, and that f—ing moped gets louder and louder, to the point where it’s obliterating our song.

What do you like about Cetera’s voice?
He’s like a horn section — he would sing so hard and so beautiful and so high. How could you not be inspired listening to somebody doing hum-alongs with you at the piano with that voice? He’d make up fake s—, just syllables and vowels, like songwriters do. But it all sounded perfect to me.

Do you see a parallel between Chicago and the Doobie Brothers or Fleetwood Mac — one of these bands where there’s like a regime change at some point that pretty significantly alters the band’s sound?
I’ve never thought about that, and it didn’t feel that way at the time. But the group was really unhappy back then and to some extent are now. And I get it — I get why they were unhappy. I just came in like a young, arrogant barnstormer: “OK, I’m playing all the piano now.” And Peter let me play the synth-bass on everything because he didn’t want to play bass anymore.

So I was the bass player, I was the piano player, I was the co-songwriter, I was the producer, I was the arranger for the most part. I didn’t know then that I was making them be more like me than I was trying to be like them. I was trying to imitate them, but I guess more of me came out than should have. And they got annoyed because they didn’t want to be a ballad band.

Sounds like a regime change.
I mean, my mission with Chicago was I wanted to remind them of their greatness. I was such a fan in the late ’60s when it was the Transit Authority. But by “Chicago 16” they’d just forgotten their greatness, that’s all. Bottom line is: I don’t blame them for being pissed off.

“Hard to Say I’m Sorry” went to No. 1. Did that success make them less salty?
No, because they’d had a ton of success before. They were so revered — they were critic’s darlings, for the most part. I f—ed that up.

David Foster, ‘Love Theme From “St. Elmo’s Fire” ’ (1985)

Foster’s theme from the Brat Pack classic was the rare instrumental track to crash the pop Top 20 in the 1980s.

I don’t look at a sunset or the ocean and go, “Oh, I can write a song around that.” That’s just not who I am. One of the only times I’ve ever been inspired to write a melody was going across the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver — a melody came to me for the love theme of “St. Elmo’s Fire.” I sang it into a tape recorder that I had in the car, and I did a demo and sent it to the director, Joel Schumacher, who I loved working with. He said, “No, no, no, no, no, no — this is totally wrong for my movie.” Obviously, I was crushed and disappointed.

Couple days later, Quincy Jones called me and he said, “We’re doing this thing down here called ‘We Are the World.’ You should do the same thing in Canada.” So I thought about it, and I called Bruce Allen, the manager, and Bruce eventually said yes and we got all the artists together for a Canadian version of “We Are the World,” which was called “Tears Are Not Enough.” And the song that we used — Bryan Adams finished it with his partner, Jim Vallance — it was the song that Joel rejected.

The funny thing is that after Bryan did this amazing demo, Joel calls and he goes, “Oh my God, David, I’ve made such a big mistake — I put your melody up against the movie, and it’s perfect.” I said, politely, “You snooze, you lose.” Then I panicked and ran to the piano and came up with what became “Love Theme from ‘St. Elmo’s Fire.’ ”

Natalie Cole with Nat ‘King’ Cole, ‘Unforgettable’ (1991)

For the title track of her 1991 standards collection, Natalie Cole selected the swank romantic ditty popularized four decades earlier by her father — then cut it as a virtual duet with Nat “King” Cole, who’d died in 1965. The single and the LP went on to win album, record and song of the year at the Grammys.

I was kind of at a low point in my career after the monster ’80s. So when that project came along, I thought, well, I love this kind of music, and I love Natalie. It won’t sell anything, but at least it’ll be a really gratifying musical experience.

She gathered three producers — me, Tommy LiPuma and her husband at the time, Andre Fischer — and we all met at Du-par’s in the Valley. Natalie put 22 song titles out on the table and told us to pick the songs we loved. I picked “Mona Lisa” as my first pick, and then second or third round, I took “Unforgettable.”

Later, Natalie told me, “You picked the song that I want to try and do as a duet with my father. Do you have any idea how you could make that work?” I said, “No, but I’ll figure it out.” And I figured it out: I had Natalie sing, and I had them sing together, and I had Natalie answer her dad. The real hard thing to do was to get him to answer her back. So she goes, “Unforgettable,” and he goes, “Unforgettable,” right behind her. It was like he was over her shoulder.

Now, that would be so easy to do: Move his vocal here, move his vocal there — push of a button. Back then, you can imagine the technology. It was brutal.

The Grammys sweep inspired some backlash from folks who objected to the celebration of this old-fashioned music in the year of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and Ice Cube’s “Death Certificate.” What’d you make of that?
Nobody said that to my face. Obviously, some were saying it behind my back. I’m sure Nirvana was pissed off, but I’ve been pissed off at the Grammys too.

Whitney Houston, ‘I Will Always Love You’ (1992)

Foster took his second record of the year Grammy in three years with Houston’s iconic rendition of Dolly Parton’s tender country ballad. The song drove sales of the soundtrack of “The Bodyguard” to more than 18 million copies in the United States alone.

Did Whitney know Dolly’s song before she remade it?
She did not. I didn’t know it either.

The story goes that using the song was Kevin Costner’s idea.
I’m not sure — that’s the way it came to me, although I’ve heard it was his assistant that first mentioned the song. Originally they wanted to use “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.” I did two demos of it for Whitney, drove down both times to downtown L.A. where she was filming. I liked the song but I didn’t feel there was enough meat on the bone for somebody like Whitney Houston to sing. So I wasn’t confident, which probably tainted her response — she didn’t like either one.

Then, lo and behold, the song appeared on the Hot 100 [in a cover by the English singer Paul Young]. I had to feign like I was upset: “Kevin, you’re never gonna guess what happened…” He goes, “OK, lemme think about that,” and next thing I know, he delivers the title “I Will Always Love You” to me.

In those days, you had to go to the record store to hear something. I sent the assistant down there, and she came back not with Dolly’s version but with Linda Ronstadt’s version. And Linda only did two verses, not three, so that’s what I thought the song was. I didn’t know there was a third verse.

We recorded it in Florida, and because I was friends with Dolly — I’d played on a lot of her records — I called her and told her Whitney was doing her song. She said, “Great, I can’t wait to hear her sing that third verse.” I was like, “There’s no third verse.” She said, “What are you talking about? It wraps the whole song up: ‘I wish you joy and happiness.’” So we went back in the studio, and I think that’s when I conjured up the drum moment.

Was the drum moment always tied to a key change?
Oh yeah. When I make records, what I’ve always tried to do is give a record that moment where I imagine the audience leaping to their feet in the middle of the song.

Why a sax solo?
Why not? I had two big No. 1 hits around that time with sax solos — the other was “I Swear” [by All-4-One]. Adam Levine and I were talking about saxes recently because he was playing me something that had sax on it. I said, “Hey, buddy, welcome to the club.”

“I Will Always Love You” spent 14 weeks at No. 1, the longest stretch of all time until —
Mariah.

She and Boyz II Men went 16 weeks with “One Sweet Day.”
That was a little bit deflating. We thought we’d hold the record forever.

A few years ago, Babyface told me, “There’s no other record where somebody put on a better performance than ‘I Will Always Love You.’ That’s game over.” Is he right?
Not for me to say. But it’s certainly up there. I remember when Whitney was doing the a cappella part at the front, I was standing there and her mother was standing beside me. She whispered, “You’re witnessing greatness right now.” And she was right.

I wanted to cut the a cappella part. It was Kevin’s idea. I told him, “For your movie, OK, we’ll do it. But when I finish the record, this is getting axed.” I mean, I didn’t say it quite that boldly. But of course, once she sang, “If I…,” I was like, Oh my God, how could this record ever start another way than that?

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris calls Republican candidate Donald Trump ‘unstable’ and ‘out for unchecked power’ during a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, launching the final weekend of her campaign.

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Ellie, 39: I’ve frozen my eggs

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Chris and Gemma: Vasectomy aged 33

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Dami, 34: I’m waiting until I’m ready

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Kari, 34: I like the idea of adopting

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What does this mean for the future?

POLICE are investigating a fresh allegation of sexual assault against Alex Salmond, the former First Minister of Scotland.

A woman reported the alleged incident, said to be “non-recent”, to Police Scotland, shortly after Mr Salmond died, aged 69, last month, while attending a conference in North Macedonia.

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It has also emerged that up to six women approached the SNP more than two years ago, to lodge complaints about Mr Salmond’s behaviour.

The complaints, said to be of a sexual nature, are believed to have been reported to Ian McCann, the party’s compliance officer, who was responsible for disciplinary issues.

They were said to have been brought to the attention of the SNP’s then-chief executive, Peter Murrell, but were not taken any further.

The SNP is bracing itself for the possibility of more women coming forward, claiming to have been victims of the former party leader’s unwanted sexual advances.

Mr Salmond’s alleged inappropriate behaviour with women is claimed to date back almost 40 years, and to have been well known among leadership figures and aides, according to a senior party insider.

It is claimed those closest to the leader often warned young female MSPs and MPs, party workers and civil servants not to allow themselves to be left alone with him.

The insider said: “Around two years ago five or six complaints of inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature were reported to the party and went as far as Peter Murrell.

“The allegations date as far back as the 1980s, including in Alex’s Banff and Buchan constituency. They were generally interpreted as bring of a ‘less serious nature’, which may be why it was decided not to report them to the police.

“Because Alex was no longer a party member, or an employee of the party – and therefore no longer subject to its disciplinary procedures – it was felt that there was nowhere for an internal investigation to go.”

Mr Salmond walked free from Edinburgh’s High Court in March 2020, after being cleared of 14 counts of sexual assault and attempted rape.

At the time of his death, he was in the midst of suing the Scottish Government for its botched handling of complaints against him. The Scottish Government had pledged to vigorously contest the legal action.

A source close to the party said that, shortly before the trial, a complaint was made by a female MP who claimed that Mr Salmond groped her while they were posing for a photoshoot.

The source said: “She was shocked, traumatised, and angry but she didn’t go to the police because she didn’t want to do anything that might prejudice the trial.

“She believed she would get justice, indirectly, through the trial but the jury saw things differently.”

Another source said: “I can’t begin to describe the shock and bewilderment inside the party when Alex was cleared of all charges.

“While no-one could argue with the verdict – he was judged and cleared by a jury of his peers – it arguably acted as a break on anyone else coming forward with fresh allegations, until now.

“Alex was a powerful and litigious figure and there’s a belief within the party that some women might not have come forward because they were scared of challenging him and the political establishment surrounding him.”

The trial irrevocably fractured Mr Salmond’s relationship with Nicola Sturgeon, his former protégé, successor, and closest ally.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have received a report of a non-recent sexual assault. The information is being assessed.”

An SNP spokesperson said: “SNP disciplinary processes can only be invoked against current SNP members.”

Mr Salmond’s solicitor was approached for comment.

EU-funded researchers are testing DNA from archaeological cat remains to help unravel the tale of cat domestication.

By Ali Jones

It probably will not surprise cat owners, familiar with the enigmatic and independent nature of their beloved pets, to know that scientists have found the feline domestication process to be rather unconventional in comparison to other animals.

“Cats are really peculiar in a way because they have adapted a lot to humans, but without really changing their nature,” says Dr Claudio Ottoni, a paleogeneticist from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, in Italy.

“Even physically a wild cat and a domestic cat are not that different. Cats have been very successful evolutionarily and adapted very well to the human niche, which is fascinating.”

Ancient DNA

Ottoni, who uses ancient DNA as a tool to reconstruct the past of human and animal populations, is heading up an international EU-funded research project called Felix to shed further light on the history of the relationship between cats and humans.

The Felix research team – which includes leading experts in palaeontology, archaeozoology and molecular biology from museums and academic institutes across Europe – is analysing over 1 300 archaeological samples of cats drawn from some of the most important museum collections.

The samples come from over 80 archaeological sites in Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia, and range from before 10 000 BC to the 18^th century. By extracting the genetic data from these ancient cat remains, the researchers aim to reconstruct the unique biological and environmental influences that shaped cat domestication and trace the appearance of domestic cats across the globe.

High-tech analysis

Working in specialised facilities to minimise the risk of DNA contamination, the researchers are testing the cat remains with cutting-edge molecular biology techniques that allow them to extract and analyse genetic information.

Tiny fragments of bone and teeth are pulverised into a few milligrams of powder from which the DNA is extracted and converted into ‘genomic libraries’ – a collection of overlapping DNA fragments that together make up the total genomic DNA of a single organism.

The genetic information is then unlocked using powerful next-generation sequencing – a gene sequencing technology that makes it possible to process large amounts of data very quickly. In this, the researchers are supported by the computational infrastructure of Cineca, one of Europe’s large-scale research facilities and among the most powerful supercomputing service providers in the world.

This advanced technology is allowing researchers to study biological systems at a level that was previously impossible. It will also make it easier to spot patterns of genetic mutation over time that indicate the different stages in cat domestication.

“This is how we are able to tell whether an ancient bone belonged for example to a European wildcat or an African or Near Eastern wildcat, which is the ancestor of modern domestic cats,” says Ottoni.

Fishing for clues

The researchers are also using sophisticated techniques based on the chemical analysis of collagen, the most abundant protein in bones, to look at how cats’ diets evolved over time. For example, when did they begin to eat fish, thanks to fishermen feeding them scraps from their haul? This helps to build a picture of how cat domestication developed.

For many years, scientists generally believed that cat domestication began in Ancient Egypt thanks to the widespread iconography of cats and the discovery of mummified cats created as offerings to the gods.

However, in 2004, the discovery of the ancient burial site of a young man and a cat in Cyprus – in the Neolithic village of Shillourokambos – suggested that cats may already have been domesticated as early as 11 000 years ago.

The DNA analysis being carried out by Ottoni and his colleagues hopes to clear up this mystery. So far, results lead them to believe that Europe’s domestic cats began their bond with humans in North Africa, possibly travelling to Europe with Romans trading across the Mediterranean Sea.

“If everything started around 10 000 years ago, we would expect to see cats introduced into Europe soon after, as we find with pigs and other animal domesticates,” said Ottoni. “But our DNA analysis shows that cats in Europe were still wild cats, none are genetically originated from the domesticated strain of cat until much later, around 2 500 years ago.”

But how these different centres of cat domestication interacted cannot be resolved until analysis of the genome of ancient cats is complete. This is the blueprint that carries all the information on an organism’s growth, development and function.

The secret life of cat mummies

For the final two years of the study, the researchers will be dissecting the genetic secrets of their large collection of Egyptian cat mummies. They want to compare the DNA of these cats with modern domestic cats, and with that of ancient cat remains already analysed in Europe.

The research team will be working on Egyptian cat mummies sourced from different collections across Europe, including from the Natural History Museum in Vienna, the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, the Natural History Museum and the British Museum in London, as well as the Natural History Museum in Warsaw.

Professor Wim Van Neer, a renowned Belgian archaeozoologist based at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, is closely involved in this part of the research. He personally excavated mummified cats in Egypt and has hands-on experience that further informs his research.

“When I excavated six complete cat skeletons in a 6 000-year-old Egyptian tomb, I was able to show that these animals were tamed, but not fully domesticated,” he said. “These finds predate the earliest evidence of domestic cats in pharaonic Egypt by more than 2 000 years. I still wonder if these early attempts to control cats eventually led to domestication.”

One of the challenges faced by the researchers is the possible damage done to the DNA due to the mummification process. Van Neer hopes that the advanced sequencing technology now available to them will help overcome this potential hurdle and reveal further details of the domestic cat’s fascinating journey from wild animal to couch companion.

“I see how much people want to know about their cats. This project is shedding light on how the human relationship with cats started – and where,” said Ottoni.

Research in this article was funded by the European Research Council (ERC). The views of the interviewees don’t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.​This article was originally published in Horizon the EU Research and Innovation Magazine.

Heidi Klum and husband Tom Kaulitz shot for the moon Thursday night, transforming into his-and-hers E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial characters for the supermodel’s annual Halloween bash.

The “America’s Got Talent” and “Project Runway” star always goes all out for Halloween, last year evolving into a multi-person peacock after previously dressing up as an elaborate butterfly, a worm, a sinewy cadaver and Fiona from “Shrek,” to name a few, as well as memorably aging herself up.

This time around, she again drew on a Hollywood classic, enlisting a team of prosthetic and special-effects makeup professionals to create Thursday’s extra-terrestrial costumes. Kaulitz embodied the classic version of the titular alien from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film, while Klum took on the disguised version of E.T. Both of them sported the alien’s glowing finger.

“From the moment I started envisioning my costume for the 25th year of #HeidiHalloween I was inspired by one of my favorite movies,” Klum, 51, wrote Friday on Instagram, sharing a behind-the-scenes video of the hours-long costuming process.

“As a nine year old in Germany, E.T. introduced me to the idea that there’s life outside planet earth. So for the last year, we all put our heads together to figure out how to put my own stamp on such an iconic character,” she wrote. “I know E.T. wanted to go home, but I hope that if the movie took place in 2024 that my favorite extra terrestrial would come to my party instead.”

Klum’s 23rd annual Halloween party took place at Hard Rock Hotel in New York City and featured a bevy of celebrity guests. Earlier this week, Klum told USA Today that her yearly fête was a result of having few “really cool” Halloween party options in New York. The bash and Klum’s elaborate costumes have become a pop-culture touchstone for the holiday, and she kicked off the event earlier this week with a symbolic lighting of the Empire State Building.

On Thursday, Klum‘s and Kaulitz’s faces peeked through the necks of their respective costumes, which featured 3-D printed suits and digital sculptures on their heads to mimic E.T.’s animatronic noggin.

One artist working on the project described it as an innovative “full movie build.” Klum also confirmed that she would need to wear adult diapers to get through the night without having to use the restroom.

“Thank you to my husband for being the best sport and always dressing up with me year after year and thank you to the best, most talented team who took my wildest dream and turned it into reality. I couldn’t do it without you,” Klum added in her caption.

Also in attendance were Klum’s daughter, Leni, who also dressed up as an alien, Kelsea Ballerini and boyfriend Chase Stokes decked out as Danny and Sandy from “Grease,” Nicole Scherzinger as her blood-soaked “Sunset Boulevard” character and TikToker Charli D’Amelio as a “Black Swan” ballerina.

Questlove served as the event’s DJ, and Bethenny Frankel, Marc Jacobs, Eric Andre, the Elevator Boys, Ice T and Coco, Jay Manuel and Jonathan Van Ness were also among the guests.

Here on the West Coast, Grammy winner Janelle Monáe embodied the same iconic ‘80s character for the Halloween party she hosted in Los Angeles. Her E.T. costume featured animatronic eyes, a yellow index finger and the creature’s distinctive voice.

Speaking to the Associated Press about twinning with Klum, Monáe gave credit to her New York counterpart: “There can be two Hallo-queens. I love Heidi.”

The United States says thousands of North Korean soldiers are now on Russian soil, preparing to enter the war against Ukraine.

Most are in Russia’s Kursk region – where Ukraine launched a counter-invasion almost three months ago.

Fighting there has been intense, and some analysts say the addition of North Korean troops could change the dynamics of the conflict.

As the Kremlin struggles to lure new recruits, Pyongyang has pledged unwavering support for Moscow.

Does Vladimir Putin’s reach for North Korean troops reveal a military stretched to the breaking point?

Or is this a sign of Russian strength, as it builds new alliances?

Presenter: Laura Kyle

Guests:

Graham Ong-Webb – Adjunct fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Pavel Felgenhauer – Military analyst and political commentator

Craig Mark – Adjunct lecturer at Hosei University, Tokyo

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged its allies to stop “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield, and the country’s army chief warned that his troops are facing “one of the most powerful offensives” by Moscow since the all-out war started more than two years ago.

Zelenskyy raised the prospect of a preemptive Ukrainian strike on camps where the North Korean troops are being trained and said Kyiv knows their location. But he said Ukraine cannot do it without permission from allies to use Western-made long-range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia.

“But instead … America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching. Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean military to start attacking Ukrainians as well,” Zelenskyy said in a post late Friday on the Telegram messaging app.

The Biden administration said on Thursday that some 8,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia’s Kursk region near Ukraine’s border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight against Ukrainian troops in the coming days.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s military intelligence said that more than 7,000 North Koreans equipped with Russian gear and weapons had been transported to areas near Ukraine. The agency, known by its acronym GUR, said that North Korean troops were being trained at five locations in Russia’s Far East. It did not specify its source of information.

Western leaders have described the North Korean troop deployment as a significant escalation that could also jolt relations in the Asia Pacific region, and open the door to technology transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met with her Russian counterpart in Moscow on Friday.

Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to use Western weapons to strike arms depots, airfields and military bases far from the border to motivate Russia to seek peace. In response, US defence officials have argued that the missiles are limited in number, and that Ukraine is already using its own long-range drones to hit targets farther into Russia.

Moscow has also consistently signalled that it would view any such strikes as a major escalation. President Vladimir Putin warned on September 12 that Russia would be “at war” with the US and NATO states if they approve them.

Ukraine facing ‘powerful’ Russian offensive

Zelenskyy’s call came shortly before Ukraine’s top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskii, said on Saturday that his troops are struggling to stem “one of the most powerful offensives” by Russia since its all-out invasion of its southern neighbour in February 2022.

Writing on Telegram following a call with a top Czech military official, Syrskii hinted that Ukrainian units are taking heavy losses in the fighting, which he said “require constant renewal of resources.”

While Syrskii did not specify where the heavy fighting took place, Russia has for months been conducting a ferocious campaign along the eastern front in Ukraine, gradually compelling Kyiv to surrender ground. But Moscow has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk border region following an incursion almost three months ago.

Dozens injured in Russian strikes on Ukraine

Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv overnight into Saturday, killing a policeman and injuring dozens, local Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported. According to Syniehubov and Ukraine’s national police force, one missile slammed into a spot where a large group of police were gathered, killing a 40-year-old serviceman and injuring 36 more.

In Ukraine’s southern Kherson province, Russian shelling on Saturday killed a 40-year-old woman and wounded three others, including two children, local Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. Another Kherson resident was wounded in a drone attack later that day, according to local Ukrainian authorities.

Five more civilians, including two children, were injured after Russia struck Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said.

In Kyiv, air raid sirens wailed for more than five hours early Saturday morning as Russian drones rained on the capital, sparking a fire in an office block downtown and injuring two people, according to the city’s military administration.

Overall, Russian forces overnight attacked Ukraine with more than 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the Ukrainian air force reported Saturday. It said most were shot down or sent off-course using GPS jamming. Falling debris damaged power networks and residential buildings in multiple provinces and injured an elderly woman near Kyiv, officials said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry hinted that Russia’s drone campaign was slowing down, saying Moscow launched just more than half as many in October as the month before.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry reported that its forces overnight shot down 24 Ukrainian drones over four Russian regions and occupied Crimea. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

PRINCE Andrew appeared defiant yesterday as sources said he has vowed to stay put in the Royal Lodge despite the King cutting off his yearly allowance.

The Duke of York, 64, was seen driving near his 30-room home in Windsor Great Park after it was revealed that his brother Charles has reportedly removed his £1 million-a-year budget.

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A source told The Sun on Sunday that Andrew, who was stripped of his roles and patronages by his mother after forking out millions to settle Virginia Giuffre’s sex claims case, is refusing to budge from the palatial house.

They said: “Prince Andrew is holding firm and is determined to stay in the Royal Lodge.

“He is insistent that he has the funds to pay for his own security, despite the eyewatering seven-figure sum it is reportedly costing him.

“He is no longer a financial burden on the King and sees no reason why he should have to move from his home.”

Royal writer Robert Hardman claims in his new book that Charles, 75, has instructed the Keeper of the Privy Purse to completely remove financial ties with his scandal-hit brother.

The Sun on Sunday previously revealed Charles had laid off the Royal Lodge’s ten-strong security team.

It is understood Andrew will have to pay out of his own pocket for the upkeep of his property, including his security, the protection of works of art and furniture borrowed from the Royal Collection.

Hardman also alleges the late Queen would have reluctantly booted disgraced Andrew out of Royal Lodge and into Frogmore Cottage if she were still alive.

It is understood plans were being drawn up to remove her rumoured favourite from his Windsor home in 2023, the year after her death.

In one incident from 2016, Hardman claims that the Duke of York rammed the gates of the historic property with his Range Rover when they were broken, rather than drive round and use another entrance.

It has also been claimed that he would insist that any “personal friends” of the Duke would not need security clearance to enter the estate – which is how the BBC Newsnight team got in to record his infamous interview.

The latest claims are in an updated edition of Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story.

Badenoch replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, will be opposition leader after party’s crushing election defeat.

Kemi Badenoch has won the race to become the new leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, pledging to return it to its founding principles and win back voters after its disastrous election defeat in July.

Badenoch, 44, came out on top in the two-horse race with former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, winning 57 percent of the votes of party members.

She received 53,806 votes, while Jenrick got 41,388 votes from the 131,680 eligible electors. The party placed turnout at 72.8 percent.

Badenoch replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and has pledged to lead the party through a period of renewal, saying it had veered towards the political centre by “governing from the left” and must return to its traditional ideas.

The first Black woman leader of a major political party in the UK, Badenoch said becoming leader was an “enormous honour”.

The combative former equalities minister faces the daunting task of reuniting a divided and weakened party that was emphatically removed from power in July after 14 years in charge.

“The task that stands before us is tough but simple,” she told party members in her acceptance speech. “Our first responsibility as His Majesty’s loyal opposition is to hold this Labour government to account.”

“The time has come to tell the truth,” she said. “We have to be honest about the fact we made mistakes” and “let standards slip”.

Born in London to Nigerian parents, Badenoch spent her childhood years in Lagos. She became an MP in 2017, and, in 2022, made her first bid for Conservative leader.

With forthright views on everything from what she calls identity politics to the value of officials, Badenoch attracts both strong admirers and detractors.

She will become the official leader of the opposition and face off against Labour’s Keir Starmer in the House of Commons every Wednesday for the traditional prime minister’s questions.

With the Labour government off to a bumpy start following the party’s landslide election victory, some Conservatives are increasingly optimistic that they could win back power at the next election, which should be held in 2029.

But some more centrist Conservatives worry Badenoch might alienate not only the more moderate wing of the party but also some voters who were won over by the centrist Liberal Democrats at the last election.

Carol Lombardini, who represented the major studios at the bargaining table during last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, is set to step down as president and chief negotiator of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in 2025.

A spokesperson for the AMPTP confirmed Lombardini’s forthcoming exit Thursday night in an email, adding that she had long planned to retire next year. After 15 years at the helm, Lombardini, 69 according to public records, will transition into an advisory role as the organization conducts a search for her successor.

“We are incredibly grateful to Carol for her many years of leadership at the AMPTP and wish her the very best in her retirement,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“She has been a steady and invaluable advocate at the bargaining table, strengthening relationships with our union partners every step of the way.”

Lombardini was appointed president of the AMPTP in 2009 after working for the group in a legal capacity since its inception in 1982. She recently came into the spotlight during the dual Hollywood strikes of 2023, bargaining on behalf of Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, Amazon and other entertainment companies.

“I think I’ve participated in more than 300 deals,” Lombardini told The Times in 2009.

“This is probably one of the most heavily unionized industries in the U.S. When you step foot on a set in Hollywood, you’re automatically dealing with 25 unions. It’s very challenging because you have to know what’s in each contract.”

Lombardini’s retirement announcement is not expected to affect ongoing contract negotiations between the AMPTP and the Animation Guild. Negotiations for that contract have historically been led by Lombardini’s deputy, Tracy Cahill.

Before becoming the first female leader of the AMPTP, Lombardini worked for decades under her predecessor and mentor, Nick Counter, who retired from his post and died in 2009.

She was a lightning rod for criticism by Hollywood workers, particularly during last year’s walkouts. A parody account portraying Lombardini as a cartoonish corporate shill went viral on X during the work stoppages of 2023.

The chief negotiator for the top studios and streamers is often regarded as the nemesis of Hollywood labor, but Lombardini had a different take upon stepping into the role more than a decade ago.

“As the chief negotiator, you are the target of negative attention from the other side,” she told The Times.

“But the irony of the situation is that, in reality, I’m labor’s closest ally because if I can’t convince my bargaining committee to do something they are asking for, they are not going to get it.”

The meme coin market is growing and emerging projects like Pepe Unchained ($PEPU) show massive potential.

Pepe Unchained is building an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain for meme coins, a concept which has traders on the edge of their seats.

They’ve raised a record-breaking $23.7 million at presale, and now a top analyst has called it “the biggest meme coin launch” of the year.

Will this widely anticipated joke token live up to expectations?

Crypto analyst hails Pepe Unchained as presale raise skyrockets

This is also seen on social media, with its X account boasting 48K followers.

That’s just 20K followers less than Popcat, the world’s fifth-largest meme coin, which currently has a staggering $1.63 billion market cap.

There’s a clear discrepancy between Pepe Unchained and Popcat based on social prominence, which is partly why analysts like Austin Hilton are bracing for such significant gains.

But why are so many people flocking to Pepe Unchained?

Fixing Ethereum’s scalability issue with an L2 for meme coins

But Pepe Unchained is helping bring Ethereum back to its golden era, ending the dreaded scalability issue once and for all.

Layer 2s are blockchains built on Ethereum that offer low fees and high speeds. There are plenty on the market, but they’re mostly focused on DeFi, NFTs, and gaming.

Pepe Unchained is the first to create a layer 2 blockchain for meme coins.

Given the fact that many analysts say we’re in a “meme coin supercycle,” it’s no surprise that investors are scrambling to buy $PEPU at the lowest possible price.

Are tier-1 exchange listings next up for Pepe Unchained?

Tackling Ethereum’s most pressing issue and eyeing major growth opportunities, the future looks bright for Pepe Unchained.

The hype it currently sees may be the start of something bigger.

Investors can take advantage of this by participating in the presale.

The current $PEPU presale price is $0.01199, but this will rise throughout the campaign. The next uptick is in just one day.

Visit Pepe Unchained Presale

Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in memory leaves 211 dead while dozens are still missing.

Spain is sending 5,000 more soldiers and 5,000 more police to the eastern region of Valencia after deadly floods this week, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced.

In a televised address on Saturday, Sanchez said the disaster was the second-deadliest flood in Europe this century and that Spain was carrying out its largest deployment of army and security force personnel in peacetime.

At least 211 people have been killed, including 202 in Valencia alone, in Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

Rescuers were still searching for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings on Saturday, four days after the monstrous flash floods that swept away everything in their path in the east of Spain. An unknown number of people remain missing.

Thousands of volunteers are helping to clean up the thick mud that is covering everything in streets, houses and businesses in the hardest-hit towns.

Dozens still missing

Authorities are facing criticism over the effectiveness of warning systems before the floods, with opposition politicians accusing the central government in Madrid of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescue teams.

“There has been a sense of anger that people have been left abandoned here,” said Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego, reporting from Paiporta, one of the worst-hit areas in the outskirts of Valencia.

“This neighbourhood, which is only half an hour from Valencia’s city centre, remained utterly cut off – no water, no electricity, hardly any telecommunications,” she added.

Prime Minister Sanchez said: “I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages… towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives.”

Susana Camarero, deputy head of the Valencia region, stated on Saturday that essential supplies had been delivered “from day one” to all accessible areas. In the Valencia region, authorities have restricted road access for two days to enable emergency services to carry out search, rescue, and logistics operations more efficiently.

Officials report that dozens of people remain unaccounted for, though determining an exact figure is challenging due to severe damage to communication and transport networks.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told Cadena Ser radio on Friday that it was “reasonable” to expect more deaths would be discovered. Authorities are hopeful that the number of missing will decline once telephone and internet services are restored.

The storm that started the floods on Tuesday formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for this time of year.

But scientists warn that climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.

In Los Angeles, fall for me means researching, eating and writing at the fastest possible pace to pull together our annual 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. project. But it’s also the season for an almost genetic hunger: I have to return to Maryland, where I was raised, to eat my fill of steamed crabs.

The origins of an obsession

I don’t remember learning how to pick apart a blue crab, in the same way I don’t remember being taught how to speak. My hands dismantling delicious, spice-caked creatures was simply part of family life near the Chesapeake Bay and its estuaries.

As a kid, I took as gospel the local folklore that crabs were best in months spelled with no R and that oysters were at their finest in months with Rs. There were practicalities behind this common belief: Levels of Red Tide can be high during summer, and sharing a few dozen steamed crabs over newspaper with butter-smeared Silver Queen corn on the cob and beer (for the grown-ups) is a warm-weather pastime in our region.

As an unusually food-focused adult, I eventually understood that fall is actually peak crab season. When the waters begin to cool, the swimmers biologically prepare for hibernation, and their meat is at its fullest and sweetest. If you have been eating crabs all your life, it’s plain to see — and taste — the difference in heft. Autumn is also when you’re most likely to get crabs caught in local waters: Over the last half-century, the rise in demand for crabs in the summer has meant businesses buy crabs or shelled crab meat from North Carolina, Texas and Louisiana and as far away as Venezuela and Indonesia.

Sometimes when I come home, we go to a Baltimore-area crab house like Schultz’s, and whenever I’m eating in restaurants I’m ordering crab cakes; the recipes never taste quite the same outside the state. But my internal timer ticks, waiting for the family gathering when my mother splurges on jumbo steamed crabs (which these days cost $135 per dozen and upward) from a carry-out source that we trust buys from Maryland watermen.

As with any regional food imbued with a personal sense of ownership, everyone has big opinions on everything. Most restaurants or carry-out operations that steam crabs use commercial spice blends that are similar to McCormick’s ubiquitous and beloved Old Bay. But the variations are infinite.

More celery seed and less sweet paprika? Aggressive or moderate use of salt? Mom doesn’t like crab spices so salty that they sting your lips and bulldoze over the crab’s sweetness. I don’t mind a more forceful thwack but also appreciate the purity of flavor. My brother usually brings the Natty Boh.

This year as we sat at the kitchen table, covered in butcher paper, where I once muddled through my high school homework, we all agreed the crabs were spectacular: weighted down with snowy flesh, complexly sweet-savory. The corn from a local grower was almost milky. I wiped the wet grit of spices off my hands as best I could and took my once-a-year shot of a crab claw I’d carved out as meticulously as possible.

A Maryland crab feast in progress with Bill Addison and his family.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

With that, my internal clock reset for next year’s return home for a crab feast.

Back in Los Angeles, at one of our best restaurants …

It never dawned on me that October might be the perfect month for crab globally until a meal three weeks after my Maryland trip — this week, in other words, on Halloween at Hayato.

If you’ve glanced at a ranked 101 list in the last six years, you’ve seen Hayato in various slots of the top 10 restaurants, including No. 1. Brandon Hayato Go started working at his father’s sushi restaurant in Seal Beach as a teenager. He apprenticed in Tokyo restaurants before opening his own tiny place in Row DTLA where he broadly follows kaiseki, emphasizing micro-seasons of seafoods and vegetables through varied cooking techniques served in ceremonial order.

He is a remarkable chef, though there are good reasons Go isn’t more of a household name. He serves seven people five night a week, so only a handful of customers (including devoted regulars) have the opportunity to know his cooking. Reservations are likely a months-long endeavor. Also, the cost is a whopping $400 per person, and that’s before the exquisite selection of sake. I have said it before: If I wasn’t a restaurant critic and could only save up for one blowout meal in Los Angeles a year, and could snag the booking, this is where I’d choose.

Brandon Go prepares a rice porridge, featuring snow crabs from Hokkaido, Japan, at his restaurant Hayato.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

Dinner on Thursday began with ebi shinjo (delicate shrimp cakes) overlaid with fragrant, Oregon-grown matsutakes cut to resemble somen (thin wheat noodles). Go paired anago and chestnuts in a tempura duet; served rich kinki (channel rockfish) with smoky, caramelized onions roasted over binchotan; seared cuttlefish over flames for seconds and arranged them with fresh, peeled gingko nuts; and carved slices of electrically ripe muskmelon for dessert.

But I left feeling most euphoric over the two crab dishes.

The Japanese woman sitting next to me clapped in surprise when Go brought out the ingredients for a rice porridge course made with sekogani — small female snow crabs full of roe.

“This is one of my favorite ingredients all year,” Go said. “It’s a very short season and sometimes it come later but they had some available from Hokkaido so I ordered them. Most of the time you boil the crab, mix the roe and meat and serve it as a cold appetizer. But I think it’s good hot, the aroma is really special.”

He quickly mixed all the prepared elements in a pot on a portable burner on the counter and served each portion in a crab shell. If you’ve ever had Lowcountry-style she-crab soup shot through with orange roe you’ll have an idea of the concentrated flavor. The only seasoning in Go’s porridge was salt and kombu; the minerality pushed forward the sweetness of the crab and rice.

Brandon Go prepares a final course of rice and Dungeness crab at his Arts District restaurant Hayato.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

Rice is also the traditional final course of a kaiseki progression. Often Go matches the rice with a seasonal fish, but this night it was Dungeness crab from Washington state. (Dungeness season customarily starts around now in Northern California but is often delayed for environmental reasons, including to protect endangered whales from being ensnared in crabbing nets, as is currently the case.)

Some lacy bits of Dungeness all but melted into the rice. A few chunkier pieces could be relished a moment longer. “This is the all-you-can-eat portion of the meal,” Go joked. I had seconds.

Before we left the restaurant, I grew curious about other crab species around the world. I googled and realized that Alaska king crab season begins in October, as does hairy crab season in Shanghai. This is a very niche obsession, I’m aware — but isn’t a joy of loving food to disappear into the things that make you happiest? In any case, maybe you’ll join me in lobbying for October as World Crab Month.

Also …

Paola Briseno Gonzalez carefully arranges the ofrenda in her home, honoring loved ones for Día de Muertos with vibrant marigolds, candles, and cherished mementos.

• Food editor Daniel Hernandez makes the case for why Día de Muertos is one of his favorite times in the culinary calendar.
• It’s on all our minds, so Daniel Dorsey names 16 places in L.A. where voters can stress eat, drink and get freebies on election day.
• Stephanie Breijo reports on the Egyptian influences through which Michael Mina traces his roots at his new oceanside restaurant Orla.
• Check out the roundup of this month’s highlighted places to eat, according to the Food staff.
• And last but very much not least: It’s a month before the Dec. 3 reveal party for our annual 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. guide, a sneak peek to a few of the restaurants that will be serving at the party has been released. They include Azizam, Providence, Rustic Canyon, Osteria Mozza, Dunsmoor, Dulan’s on Crenshaw, Petit Trois, Here’s Looking at You and Pizzeria Sei among many more. Check this link for tickets and more information.