Wednesday, October 15, 2025

BIG Wrap

TD Bank pleads guilty to US charges, faces business restrictions

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Two TD Bank units have pleaded guilty to United States criminal charges and agreed to pay $3 billion in combined penalties to resolve federal government probes into money laundering, US authorities have said, making it the largest bank in US history guilty for such violations. The plea deal includes imposition of an asset cap and other limitations to its business, authorities said on Thursday. It comes after multiple government investigations into...

Israeli minister says response to Iran attacks will be ‘deadly, precise, and surprising’

(BBC News) Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel's response to attacks by Iran will be “deadly, precise, and surprising”. Speaking during a visit to an IDF intelligence unit, he calls the Iranian missile attack last week — which saw almost 200 ballistic missiles fired towards Israel — "aggressive but imprecise". It comes as US President Joe Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have spoken for the first time in weeks. The White House says Vice-President Kamala Harris...

Russian forces enter key eastern Ukrainian town of Toretsk

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russian forces have reached the outskirts of the long-contested strategic town of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military confirmed that fighting was taking place in the town late on Monday. Torestsk is the latest key location that Russian troops have reached in recent weeks as they advance Moscow’s bid to take control of the Donetsk region. “The situation is unstable, fighting is taking place literally at every entrance (to the city),”...

Russia on mission to cause mayhem on European streets, warns MI5

(BBC News) Russia's intelligence agency has been on a mission to generate "sustained mayhem on British and European streets," the head of MI5 has said. Giving his annual update on security threats faced by the UK, Ken McCallum said GRU agents had carried out "arson, sabotage, and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness" in Britain after the UK backed Ukraine in its war with Russia. MI5 had also responded to 20 plots backed by Iran since...

Israel steps up Lebanon bombing as Hezbollah attacks Haifa

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Israel has expanded attacks on southern Lebanon and pounded the capital Beirut’s southern suburbs as the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has claimed a series of missile attacks on northern Israel, including near the city of Haifa. The Israeli military said it carried out 120 strikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon “within an hour” on Monday. An earlier attack on a municipal building near Bint Jbeil killed at least 10 Lebanese...

Mexican mayor murdered days after starting job

(BBC News)  The mayor of a Mexican city plagued by drug violence has been murdered less than a week after taking office. Alejandro Arcos was found dead on Sunday in Chilpancingo, a city of around 280,000 people in the southwestern state of Guerrero. He had been mayor for six days. Evelyn Salgado, the state governor, said the city was in mourning over a murder that "fills us with indignation". His death came three days after the...

Why is the UK handing back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius?

(Al Jazeera Media Network) After a dispute running for more than 50 years, the United Kingdom will finally hand back the Chagos Islands, an archipelago located in the Indian Ocean, to the southeast African island country of Mauritius. As part of an agreement on Thursday, the governments of the UK and Mauritius jointly announced that full sovereignty of the Chagos, a remote group of more than 60 islands, would again belong to Mauritius in exchange for...

At least 70 people killed in gang attack on Haitian town, says UN

(Al Jazeera Media Network) At least 70 people have been killed and 3,000 forced to flee when armed men belonging to the Gran Grif gang attacked a town in central Haiti. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday that the attack occurred on Thursday in Pont-Sonde, 100 km northwest of Port-au-Prince. The UN added that at least 16 people were seriously injured in the attack, including two gang members...

U.S. warships and planes strike Houthi targets in Yemen

(BBC News) The US military says it has launched strikes on the Iranian-backed Houthi group in Yemen, hitting 15 targets. The Pentagon said it used aircrafts and warships to launch the attacks in order "to protect freedom of navigation." Several explosions were reported in some of Yemen’s main cities, including the capital Sanaa. Since November, the Houthis have launched attacks on around 100 ships in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels in the global conduit for $1...

Iran warns of ‘unconventional response’ in case of new Israeli attack

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Iran has told the United States via an intermediary that any Israeli attack against Iran would meet an “unconventional response” that includes targeting Israeli infrastructure. In exclusive remarks to Al Jazeera, an Iranian official said on Thursday that his country has sent a message to the US, via Qatar, addressing rising regional tensions after Iran’s missile attack on Israel. In the message, Tehran told Washington that “the phase of unilateral self-restraint has...