Premier Inn owner warns tax hikes are costing hotel investments and jobs

The Independent - Oct 13, 2026

Whitbread boss urged Andy Burnham to freeze property taxes ahead of his first autumn Budget later this month

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Oct 14, 2026

Trump administration cuts refugees' deadline to contest status termination, raising fears

MIAMI — The Trump administration is cutting the time refugees have to contest the termination of their status, a move critics say could put tens of thousands of people who fled persecution and wars in their home countries on a path to deportation. The new policy, which goes into effect Wednesday, reduces from 30 to 10 the number of days refugees have to challenge the revocation of their status. It is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to restrict and transform a program that has served for decades as a pathway for refugees. The goal of the new policy, according to the document, is to “mitigate potential risks” associated with people who were admitted as refugees but were not eligible for refugee status. The policy does not say exactly how many people could be affected, but it specifically refers to refugees admitted during President Joe Biden’s administration , when it says there was an “alarming erosion of the integrity” of the refugee program. Refugee advocates dispute that claim. The Trump administration is already reviewing the cases of at least 185,000

Oct 14, 2026

Saudi Ministry of Energy reports limited fire in building in Aramco compound targeted in attack

CAIRO — A limited fire broke out Tuesday in an administrative building at Aramco, one of the world’s largest oil facilities, that was targeted in an attack in the country’s Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy said. The ministry said no injuries were reported. The attack came as the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi coalition fighting them exchanged attacks Tuesday night. The fighting marked a fresh escalation in the widening Middle East crisis and came shortly after the Saudi coalition reported a series of alerts for incoming missiles heading for the Eastern Province, a major oil-producing region, and the capital Riyadh. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense said debris from two intercepted Houthi missiles fell on residential areas in Riyadh, injuring four people and damaging 15 homes. The coalition of forces in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia carried out new airstrikes Tuesday on the Houthi rebel-held Yemeni capital, the Houthi-run broadcaster Al Masirah and residents said. The strikes marked a fresh escalation in the Middle East crisis and came shortly after a coalition spo

Oct 14, 2026

Human rights groups criticize uncontested election of 15 countries to top UN human rights body

UNITED NATIONS — Human rights groups sharply criticized Tuesday's uncontested election of 15 members of the United Nations’ premier human rights body, saying it resulted in countries with poor rights records winning seats. Positions on the 47-nation Human Rights Council are allocated to the U.N.’s regional groups to ensure geographical representation. And for the second year in a row, all regional groups put forward the exact number of candidates for available seats for the three-year term. This meant that in Tuesday’s election in the 193-member General Assembly there were no competitive races. “This uncompetitive vote makes a mockery of the word ‘election,’” said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. “No one should have a seat on this crucial body handed to them on a silver platter.” He called on U.N. member nations to “insist on competitive slates so they can reject candidates with poor human rights records.” In Tuesday’s vote, the Africa group’s Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Burundi were elected. The Asia-Pacific group’s Kuwait, Nepal, Jord

Oct 14, 2026

Employee arrested after listening device found in OpenAI conference room

WASHINGTON — An engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly installing a recording device inside a conference room in what officials said Tuesday was an effort to capture sensitive conversations about the company's technology . The employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested Friday, a week after the ChatGPT maker discovered an audio recording device hidden inside a company conference room, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco. The complaint did not identify the company, but the company confirmed in a separate statement that it had discovered a “sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices," reported the finding to the FBI and fired the employee. “We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will contin

Oct 14, 2026

US to drop S. Korea intelligence case against ex-CIA analyst

The U.S. Justice Department has agreed to forgo prosecution of a former CIA analyst and White House National Security Council official who was accused of working as an unregistered agent for South Korea in exchange for luxury goods and other gifts. Under a deferred prosecution deal reached with foreign policy specialist Sue Mi Terry, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said it would suspend criminal charges in the grand jury indictment returned against her in July 2024. Provided that Terry abides by several conditions stipulated in the deal, including restrictions on her travel and contacts with the government of South Korea, the case against her would be dropped altogether after 12 months of compliance. Terms of the agreement were laid out in a four-page deferred prosecution notice filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday. It gave Terry no explanation for why the Justice Department was essentially giving up its high-profile intelligence case except to say it had determined "that the interests of the United States and your own interest will be bes

Oct 14, 2026

Pope Leo XIV diagnosed with lung cancer after surgery to remove part of right lung

ROME — Pope Leo XIV underwent surgery Tuesday that confirmed he has lung cancer and doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung, the Vatican said. Tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin after the surgery. It said the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests and was confirmed during surgery. The statement made no mention of treatment going forward, and the Vatican said doctors were not currently speaking of chemotherapy or other therapies pending the results of other tests. The Vatican press office noted the medical statement spoke of the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors removed all suspect tissue in hopes of removing any lingering traces of the cancer. Leo's lymph nodes also would have been removed and tested, to determine if the cancer had spread, and there was no word yet on those test results. “Adenocarcinoma is the most common (type of lung cancer), also with the most favorable prognosis,” said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Ce

Oct 14, 2026

Premier Inn owner warns tax hikes are costing hotel investments and jobs

Trump administration cuts refugees' deadline to contest status termination, raising fears

Saudi Ministry of Energy reports limited fire in building in Aramco compound targeted in attack

Human rights groups criticize uncontested election of 15 countries to top UN human rights body

Employee arrested after listening device found in OpenAI conference room

US to drop S. Korea intelligence case against ex-CIA analyst

Pope Leo XIV diagnosed with lung cancer after surgery to remove part of right lung

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