Washington is taking up to 60 days to decide what its waived Russia sanctions will mean, even as Ukraine answers with one of its largest drone barrages of the year. France is cleaning up after a night of riots, Wichita is mourning two people killed at a children’s soccer game, marchers crossed from Arlington into Washington with an early-voting message, and police in Nepal have arrested a former investment board chief.
In This Roundup
- Trump Says Final Decision on Russia Sanctions Is Still to Come as Rubio Lays Out 60-Day Review
- Ukraine Launches One of Its Biggest Drone Attacks of the Year, Setting St. Petersburg Oil Terminal Ablaze
- France Wakes to a Torched Town Hall and Nearly 1,800 Arrests After a Night of Riots
- Truck Drives Through Wichita Youth Soccer Game, Killing a Child and a Man
- ‘No Kings’ Marchers Cross From Arlington to the Lincoln Memorial With an Early-Voting Message
- Former Investment Board Chief Sushil Bhatta Arrested in Lalitpur as Financial Probe Widens
- Rays Beat Guardians 7-3 to Level the ALCS at Two Games Apiece
- Kartik Aaryan to Headline Karan Johar’s Mythological Creature Film ‘Kaaliya’
1 Trump Says Final Decision on Russia Sanctions Is Still to Come as Rubio Lays Out 60-Day Review
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he has not yet announced a final decision on the Russia sanctions and tariffs he waived a day earlier, telling reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida that the matter is still being worked out. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking before leaving on a trip to Uzbekistan, said the president wants to use up to 60 days to assess what imposing the measures would mean for the global economy and for the United States.
The sanctions and tariffs were imposed under the Graham Act, which Trump signed last month at the urging of lawmakers who want to squeeze Moscow over its war in Ukraine, and they were due to take effect next week. Rubio pointed out that the package reaches well beyond Russia itself, since it also calls for tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy, including India, a major U.S. partner that remains heavily dependent on Russian oil. The waiver drew a sharp response from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who warned it would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and prolong the war. It also lands just weeks before the November midterm elections, with Trump under pressure over high energy prices as the war with Iran disrupts global oil supplies.
A lot of you don’t know what my decision is yet, but we’ll figure it out, and you’ll figure it out.
Source: Reuters
2 Ukraine Launches One of Its Biggest Drone Attacks of the Year, Setting St. Petersburg Oil Terminal Ablaze
Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone attacks of the year against Russia overnight on Saturday, striking the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal in defiance of President Trump’s demand that Kyiv stop hitting Russian energy infrastructure. Russia’s defense ministry said it shot down 1,015 Ukrainian drones over various parts of the country during the night. The terminal, a major petroleum facility on the Gulf of Finland, can handle up to 12.5 million tons a year, and the Ukrainian company that makes the drones used in the attack said a fire broke out on its grounds.
Local authorities in St. Petersburg said one person was killed and five were wounded, with residential homes damaged, and a logistics center in the city was also hit. The barrage came as Ukraine’s own cities took another heavy pounding: Ukrainian authorities said 11 people were killed and nearly 50 injured in Russian missile and drone attacks in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, including what they described as a massive attack on energy facilities in the Odesa region. Relations between Kyiv and Washington have been deteriorating in recent days, and Trump last week called Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries a “disgrace.” Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has acknowledged the energy truce the White House says was agreed, and Ukrainian officials fear the rift could cost them essential American support as another winter of Russian attacks approaches.
Source: CNN
3 France Wakes to a Torched Town Hall and Nearly 1,800 Arrests After a Night of Riots
France woke on Sunday to the wreckage of one of its most violent days of unrest in years, after Saturday’s nationwide protests over high prices and public services erupted into rioting, arson and looting in cities across the country. One demonstrator died after suffering a cardiac arrest during the demonstrations in Paris, where police made a record 855 arrests. Across France, the interior minister said, some 1,800 people were detained and more than 500 police officers were injured.
More than half a million people marched in scores of cities as a month-long student movement merged with broader anger over the cost of living and declining public services. Most marched peacefully, but violent groups torched buildings, ransacked shops and attacked police vehicles. In Limoges, the 143-year-old town hall was partially destroyed by fire, and a cleanup operation began on Sunday in cities from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south. President Emmanuel Macron, posting on X as the unrest unfolded, said there was no room for violence in the republic and vowed that those who ransacked businesses and public buildings would be prosecuted and punished.
Source: Reuters
4 Truck Drives Through Wichita Youth Soccer Game, Killing a Child and a Man
Two people, a 6-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man who were not related, were killed on Saturday afternoon when a vehicle drove through a youth soccer game at the Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita, Kansas, police said. Eleven other people were injured and taken to hospitals. Sedgwick County dispatchers began receiving calls at about 3:25 p.m. reporting that a vehicle had driven through the game at the complex, which has several indoor and outdoor fields.
The driver, a 34-year-old woman, was taken into custody and has been cooperating with investigators, according to Wichita police Capt. Aaron Moses. Two juveniles were passengers in her vehicle at the time. Police said there was no longer an ongoing threat, but they have not yet determined why the vehicle entered the field, and the investigation is continuing. Events at the complex were canceled, and the state girls flag football championship games being played on an adjacent field were suspended.
Source: USA Today
5 ‘No Kings’ Marchers Cross From Arlington to the Lincoln Memorial With an Early-Voting Message
Demonstrators rallied in Arlington on Saturday and marched across the Arlington Memorial Bridge into Washington, ending at the Lincoln Memorial, as part of a nationwide “No Kings: Vote Early” day of action. The Virginia-side gathering started near Memorial Circle, close to the proposed site of the Trump administration’s triumphal arch, where organizers had set up a mock arch of their own. Marchers carrying signs and flags crossed the bridge with music and held a brief rally on the memorial steps.
This round of No Kings events sounded different from earlier ones. Instead of centering on a single policy fight, organizers pushed a practical message two and a half weeks before the November 3 midterm elections: check your registration and cast a ballot early. More than 1,500 events were planned across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to the organizing coalition, which describes the effort as a nonpartisan voter-participation drive. Early voting has been underway in Virginia for several weeks, while the District’s early vote centers open on October 26.
Source: The Contrarian
6 Former Investment Board Chief Sushil Bhatta Arrested in Lalitpur as Financial Probe Widens
Sushil Bhatta, who led Investment Board Nepal as its chief executive from 2020, was arrested on Saturday in Sanepa, Lalitpur, police have confirmed. Senior Superintendent Dilip Ghimire of the Kathmandu Police Range confirmed the arrest and said Bhatta is under investigation, but gave no further detail. The Investment Board is the government body that handles Nepal’s largest investment projects, and the arrest of a man who ran it for four years is a significant development in Kathmandu.
Reports differ on the legal basis of the case. An unnamed source told one outlet that the allegation involves money laundering, while another reported that Bhatta is being investigated under the Nepal Rastra Bank Act, the country’s central banking law. The two accounts may describe a single case, since a laundering prosecution in Nepal can rest on an offense under another law. As of Sunday, no charge sheet had been filed in court describing what investigators believe Bhatta did, and none of the reports carried a response from him.
Source: Nepal Wire
7 Rays Beat Guardians 7-3 to Level the ALCS at Two Games Apiece
The Tampa Bay Rays evened the American League Championship Series on Saturday night, beating the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 4 at Progressive Field. Jonathan Aranda had three hits and drove in two runs, and he scored the go-ahead run on Junior Caminero’s double in the sixth inning, which put Tampa Bay in front 2-1. Nick Martinez earned the win, holding Cleveland to one run over 5 1/3 innings and retiring 11 straight batters at one stretch.
The Rays added three runs in the seventh to build a 5-1 lead, but Cleveland pulled two back in the bottom of the inning and brought the tying run to the plate. Yandy Diaz settled it in the ninth with a two-run homer that pushed the margin back to four. Game 5 is set for Sunday in Cleveland, and the best-of-seven series now returns to St. Petersburg for Game 6 on Monday whatever happens. The winner will face the Milwaukee Brewers, who swept the Los Angeles Dodgers to take the National League pennant and reach their first World Series since 1982.
Source: Reuters
8 Kartik Aaryan to Headline Karan Johar’s Mythological Creature Film ‘Kaaliya’
Kartik Aaryan is set to headline Kaaliya, a big-budget mythological creature feature that sources describe as the largest and most ambitious film Dharma Productions has attempted. The film will be directed by Sandeep Modi, known for The Night Manager, and is scheduled to go on floors in December 2026. It is currently in pre-production, and the project brings together three National Award-winning talents: Aaryan, who won for Chandu Champion, Modi, and producer Karan Johar.
According to the reports, the film will be announced this Diwali with a specially made video that will be attached to prints of Ramayana in cinemas across the country, piggybacking on the season’s biggest release. Aaryan comes into the project off a run of hits that includes Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and the Pyaar Ka Punchnama franchise. Neither Dharma Productions nor the actor has formally announced the film yet, so casting and story details should be treated as industry reporting until the Diwali reveal.
Source: Bollywood Hungama
Editor’s Note: This roundup was prepared with the assistance of AI tools. Virginia Times gathered the source material from multiple sources and thoroughly reviewed the information before publication.
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