27/10/2025

MONDAY | OCT 27, 2025

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Socialist favourite in New York mayoral race

Rubio: No permanent division of Gaza TEL AVIV: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday he did not envision a permanent division of Gaza, despite Israeli troops remaining in an area prioritised for reconstruction. Under a US-brokered ceasefire, Israeli forces have withdrawn to a “Yellow Line”, leaving them in control of around half of Gaza. The United States has said reconstruction aid would be focused in the area under Israeli control. Rubio said an international force, which US and regional mediators are trying to build, would move to enforce security across the Palestinian territory. He said Hamas could have no role. “I think, ultimately, the point of the stabilisation force is to move that line until it covers hopefully all of Gaza, meaning all of Gaza will be demilitarised,” Rubio told reporters. “Ultimately, the more of Gaza is demilitarised, the more of Gaza is going to look like that green zone and that line will move as a result of it. That’s the long-term plan. The Israelis have made it abundantly clear they have no interest in occupying Gaza.” The main Palestinian factions, including Hamas, have agreed to form a committee of technocrats to administer Gaza alongside the ceasefire and reconstruction effort. – AFP TEL AVIV: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American non-profit tasked with providing aid for civilians in Gaza, said it stands ready to resume shipments. The US and Israeli-backed private organisation was given the task of feeding starving Gazans in May after Israel placed tight restrictions on international agencies, but UN experts and aid agencies criticised its work. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid at GHF distribution sites, according to the UN human rights office and in August, UN special rapporteurs called for it to be disbanded. GHF spokesman Chapin Fay said the foundation had paused operations during the first phase of Gaza’s ceasefire while remaining Israeli hostages are released by Hamas and was now awaiting orders to get back to work. “GHF has been instructed to remain ready to re-engage and not to take any actions that would preclude us from KHAN YOUNIS: A convoy of Egyptian trucks and vehicles transporting heavy machinery entered Gaza on Saturday to help locate the remains of Israeli hostages. The vehicles were filmed in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation that the vehicles had entered the enclave. But The Times of Israel had reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the entry of the Egyptian team and engineering vehicles to the Palestinian territory. Two Egyptian military sources had also confirmed that the convoy was at the Kerem Shalom crossing on Saturday night, awaiting authorisation to cross into the territory. Only 15 of the 28 dead hostages have been returned so far, with the remaining bodies buried under rubble. – AFP PUTIN CONFIRMS SUCCESSFUL TEST OF NEW CRUISE MISSILE MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin announced yesterday a successful final test of a new nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik, praising the “unique” nuclear capable weapon with a range of up to 14,000km. He ordered the preparation of “infrastructure to put this weapon into service”. Putin called the missile a “unique creation that no one else in the world possesses”, adding that the Burevestnik has “unlimited range”. During the last test on Oct 21, the missile spent “about 15 hours” flying 14,000km, said military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov. – AFP PRIVATE GROUP READY TO RESUME AID resuming operations,” Fay said. – AFP EGYPT TO HELP RECOVER HOSTAGE REMAINS

o Voting closes on Nov 4

“Gentrifiers have raised the rent in the city and (Mamdani’s) the king of the gentrifiers.” It is unclear what impact Adams’ endorsement will have on the race. “It is possible, but extremely unlikely, Cuomo can catch Mamdani,” said Lincoln Mitchell, a political science professor at Columbia University, saying the former governor’s “tough guy persona” dates from another era. The race has been dominated by the issue of cost of living, as well as by how each candidate would handle Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds from the city. Trump has branded Mamdani, who wants to make bus travel and childcare in the city of 8.5 million people free, a “communist”. Mamdani is also a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian cause, although his positions on Israel – which he has called an “apartheid regime” while branding the war in Gaza a “genocide” – have drawn the ire of some in the Jewish community. In recent months, he has made a point of vocally denouncing antisemitism. – AFP

million New Yorkers in rent-stabilised properties. In the latest twist, scandal-tainted mayor Eric Adams backed the second-place candidate, 67-year-old former state governor Andrew Cuomo after previously calling him a “snake and a liar”.

NEW YORK: Early voting for New York’s next mayor began on Saturday with an outsider Democratic Party candidate the favourite to upend the city’s politics and face down President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked him. The twisting race has seen state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani (pic) , a self-described socialist, surge from the political wilderness to become the frontrunner in a campaign in which the current mayor bowed out and the onetime Democratic favourite lost his own primary. The 34-year-old Mamdani’s once unlikely campaign has been turbo-charged by eager campaigning by young New Yorkers in particular. An emphasis on the soaring cost of living has also resonated, with the Queens-based lawmaker promising to freeze rent for two

Early voting allows New Yorkers to cast a ballot from Saturday until Nov 2, with Election Day on Nov 4 and the winner taking office in the New Year. Mamdani had 47% support and led Cuomo by 18 points in the latest citywide poll, conducted by Victory Insights between Oct 22 and 23. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa,

71, was at 16%. Adams, who has been mired in corruption allegations linked to his term in office, dropped out of the race on Sept 28 but did not initially endorse a rival. “You can’t freeze rent, but you are lying and telling people you could. We’re fighting against a snake oil salesman,” Adams said on Thursday with Cuomo at his side.

BR I E F S

An emergency service psychologist speaking to a Kyiv resident while she looks at her damaged apartment yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Russian attack on Kyiv kills three KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called for new strong sanctions against Russia and its allies after Russian drones killed three and injured 31, including six children, in an air attack on Kyiv. Kyiv’s leafy Desnianskyi district, sparking a fire that engulfed several storeys, the mayor said. “Every Russian strike is an attempt to inflict as much damage as possible on ordinary life,” Zelensky said on Telegram.

Ukrainian military officials said on Telegram that Russia had launched 101 drones on Ukraine on Saturday night, 90 of which were downed. Zelensky said Russia has used nearly 1,200 attack drones, more than 1,360 guided aerial bombs and over 50 missiles of different types against Ukraine over the past seven days. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes on each other’s territory. But thousands, mostly Ukrainians, have been killed in the war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. – Reuters

“Of course, additional tariff and sanctions restrictions are needed against Russia and all those helping it stay afloat.” Ukraine’s state emergency service said 13 people were rescued from the building’s upper floors. Kyiv and its surrounding region were under air-raid alerts for about two hours.

The attack on Saturday night destroyed two high-rise apartment buildings and Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app that seven of the injured, including two children, were taken to city hospitals. Debris from destroyed Russian air weapons fell onto a nine-storey apartment building in