| | | | | | | Hello. I hope you had a good start to October so far. The US has once again narrowly avoided a shutdown, but the struggle to pass the spending bill leaves unresolved questions about aid to Ukraine and unity within the Republican party. Mark Lowen speaks to the migrants braving the Alps to find a better life, and we find some much-needed good news in Redonda, a once desolate Caribbean island transformed into a wildlife haven. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Spending bill sidelines military aid to Ukraine | | | | President Biden has requested Congress to authorize another $24bn (£19bn) to Ukraine. Credit: Getty Images |
| | While public services in the US continue as normal today, after Congress approved a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown, the temporary fix has left concerns over funding for Ukraine. The spending bill excluded $6bn (£4.92bn) in military aid for Kyiv - a top White House priority. And while President Joe Biden is insisting the US cannot "under any circumstances, allow US support... to be interrupted", the EU's most senior diplomat, Josep Borrell, has told the BBC he was "worried". Meanwhile, hardline Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz - who wants to end new military aid to Ukraine - says he will this week try to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was only able to pass the legislation with support from opposition Democrats. Ukraine's foreign ministry says the "flow of US aid won't change", with $3bn of humanitarian and military support set to still arrive, but has conceded that "ongoing programmes" might be affected. | | • | Republican feud: Hardline Republicans think passing the spending bill with Democrats' support crossed a red line. | | • | Congress alarmed: Democrat Congressman Jamaal Bowman triggered a fire alarm in the House - accidentally, according to him. An investigation is now under way. | | • | Meanwhile, in Slovakia: A populist pro-Moscow party has won the largest share of votes in the parliamentary elections. |
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| | | | | | World headlines | | • | Flare-up: Turkey says it had carried out a number of air strikes in northern Iraq targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), after a suicide blast hit the interior ministry in Ankara. | | • | Nobel Prize: The award in the field of physiology or medicine has been awarded to a pair of scientists who developed the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines. | | • | Dozens trapped: At least 10 people were killed in a church in Mexico when the roof collapsed during a Mass service. Some reports suggested a baptism ceremony was being held there. | | • | Whoosh is here: Indonesia has inaugurated its first high-speed railway, a $7.3bn (£5.9) project backed by China under its Belt and Road Initiative. | | • | Cheering squad: Taylor Swift shared her newfound interest in the NFL with her celebrity friends, bringing the likes of Sophie Turner, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and others, to support her rumoured love interest Travis Kelce's Kansas City Chiefs. |
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| | AT THE SCENE | Oulx, Italy | | The migrants trekking across the Alps | | More than 130,000 migrants have entered Italy this year - almost double the same period in 2021. They're aiming to reach France - or beyond - but face a perilous journey to make across the Alps mountain range. | | | | Mark Lowen, BBC Rome correspondent |
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| | Omar, from Nigeria, who spent months in Libya before paying smugglers the equivalent of $800 (£660) to make the perilous crossing across the Mediterranean to Lampedusa. From there, he was moved to two camps elsewhere in Italy, before managing, he says, to get out and walk to the French border. Now his aim is to reach the UK. "I just want to have a good life and study there," he tells me, his foot bandaged from an injury at sea. I ask whether he's seen pictures or heard stories of economic migrants being refused asylum in France or the UK and being sent back. He has, he says, but even if he meets the same fate, he will try again. |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | Treasure island | | | | Redonda is bursting with biodiversity. Credit: Adam Long |
| | Antigua and Barbuda's government has designated the island of Redonda a protected area, ensuring its status as a haven for dozens of threatened species, including globally important seabird colonies and endemic lizards. It's the culmination of years-long efforts to bring biodiversity back to the mile-long spot that locals once simply dubbed "the rock". | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Monk mode activated | | The latest approach to productivity involves apps that block any distraction. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | An 11-metre totem has come home to Canada after spending nearly a century at the National Museum of Scotland. The Ni'isjoohl memorial pole is the first such artefact to be returned from a British museum to an indigenous community, and received a warm welcome. |
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