President Trump is pressing for an end to the war in Ukraine while defending his decision to ease sanctions on Russia, Alberta voters have overwhelmingly backed staying in Canada, and Paris spent a calmer night under a targeted curfew after days of rioting. Closer to home, a federal judge pressed government lawyers over the East Potomac golf course plan and Virginia amendment campaigns reported a wide fundraising gap, while Nepal weighed voting rights for citizens abroad, Tampa Bay reached the World Series, and Nepal refused to screen a Bollywood spy comedy.
In This Roundup
- Trump Presses for Ukraine Deal as He Defends Easing Russia Sanctions
- Alberta Voters Overwhelmingly Back Remaining Part of Canada
- Paris Streets Stay Calm Under Overnight Curfew After Days of Rioting
- Judge Grills Government Lawyers Over Trump’s East Potomac Golf Course Plan
- Supporters of Virginia Constitutional Amendments Far Outraise Opponents
- Nepal Weighs Postal, Online and Machine Voting for Citizens Abroad
- Tampa Bay Rays Beat Cleveland to Reach the World Series
- Nepal Refuses to Screen Bollywood Spy Comedy Udta Teer
1 Trump Presses for Ukraine Deal as He Defends Easing Russia Sanctions
President Donald Trump is pressing to bring the war in Ukraine to an end while continuing to court Russia, defending his decision to ease tariffs and other sanctions against Moscow and saying he was making “great progress” toward a peace deal with the Kremlin. Trump said he had held off on imposing new sanctions because he did not want to do anything that would drive Russia away from the bargaining table, and he suggested for the first time that the process includes hostage negotiations, without saying whose release he is seeking.
The diplomacy is unfolding alongside heavy fighting. Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia in one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, setting an oil export terminal and a depot ablaze in St. Petersburg, while Trump criticised Kyiv’s strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and accused President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of not wanting to end the war. At home, campaigning has reached fever pitch with Election Day two weeks away, in a midterm cycle NPR reports is set to become the most expensive on record.
Source: NPR
2 Alberta Voters Overwhelmingly Back Remaining Part of Canada
Voters in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province have overwhelmingly backed remaining in Canada, with early referendum results delivering a boost to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push for national unity amid President Trump’s trade war and annexation threats. With more than 1.4 million votes counted, 76 percent supported remaining in Canada, while close to 24 percent backed beginning a process toward separation, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta.
The referendum was not a direct vote on independence: approval would only have set Alberta on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada. Separatist leaders took some comfort from the size of the minority vote, arguing it showed a substantial share of Albertans believe the province is not being treated fairly within the federation.
We don’t have the final results. I think the numbers are going to fluctuate, but it is fair to say that at least a quarter of Albertans feel that Alberta needs to be treated better.
Source: TFI Online
3 Paris Streets Stay Calm Under Overnight Curfew After Days of Rioting
Paris police imposed an overnight curfew on Monday around Place de la République and Les Halles after France’s worst rioting in years, and the streets in the restricted areas were reported calm through the night. The targeted measure follows days of unrest that have spread pressure on President Emmanuel Macron’s government and drawn police patrols back onto the capital’s streets.
The unrest sits within a wider European picture. Rising fuel prices are piling pressure on households, businesses and governments across the continent, fuelling cost-of-living protests and, according to European reporting, bolstering far-right parties ahead of elections next year in countries including France, Italy and Poland, with some parties calling for a return to Russian energy.
Source: Euronews
4 Judge Grills Government Lawyers Over Trump’s East Potomac Golf Course Plan
A federal judge pressed government lawyers on Monday over President Trump’s plan to renovate the East Potomac golf course in Washington, after the president said that morning that work on the course would begin immediately. Government lawyers told the judge hours later that there is no final plan, a gap that raised more questions about how the project is being carried out.
Trump has announced that the historic public course on Hains Point, across the Potomac from Arlington, will close on November 15 for about 15 months of renovations. Local preservationists and golfers have challenged the administration in court over environmental concerns and lost public access, and the case has also drawn criticism from Virginia’s Rep. Don Beyer, who warned the redesign could block roads and paths used by large numbers of local residents for cycling and walking.
Source: WHRO
5 Supporters of Virginia Constitutional Amendments Far Outraise Opponents
Groups supporting Virginia’s proposed constitutional amendments are far outpacing their opponents in fundraising, according to the latest campaign finance disclosures from the Virginia Department of Elections posted by the Virginia Public Access Project. Groups backing abortion rights in support of amendment one have raised more than three million dollars to persuade voters, while groups in opposition have raised only about $800,000.
The coalition financing the campaign for amendment one includes Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, REPRO Rising and New Virginia Majority, and its campaign manager, Han Jones, pointed to 800 unique donors, more than 500 of them giving less than $100. Alex Keena of Virginia Commonwealth University said having the amendments on the ballot can mobilise a party’s base and unify voters around the issues, bringing people to the polls who are then likely to vote in other races as well.
Source: WHRO
6 Nepal Weighs Postal, Online and Machine Voting for Citizens Abroad
Nepal could introduce postal voting, internet-based voting and electronic voting machines so that citizens living abroad and voters staying outside their registered districts can take part in elections, under recommendations from a study committee formed by the Election Commission. The committee, led by Election Commissioners Rajiv Subba and Guru Wagle, has submitted its report to Chief Election Commissioner Man Bahadur Karki, and a draft legal proposal has been sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The report proposes testing voting machines and postal voting in the upcoming local elections, with machines also placed at Nepali diplomatic missions abroad, before any wider move to online voting in provincial and federal elections. The committee cautioned against jumping straight to internet voting, citing voter authentication, cybersecurity and ballot secrecy, and stressed that the ideas remain recommendations that would need legal amendments, budget and coordination between ministries before they can be adopted.
Source: Fiscal Nepal
7 Tampa Bay Rays Beat Cleveland to Reach the World Series
Tampa Bay clinched the American League pennant with a 7-3 win over Cleveland in Game 6 of the ALCS on October 19. Junior Caminero’s two-run homer in the seventh inning and Yandy Díaz’s two-run shot in the eighth broke the game open, and Freddy Peralta worked five and a third strong innings on the mound.
The Rays now head to Milwaukee for Game 1 of the World Series on Friday, with first pitch at 8 p.m. Eastern. The pennant caps a postseason run that carried Tampa Bay past a Cleveland side that had already seen its schedule reshuffled by rain earlier in the series.
Source: Game Day Tourist
8 Nepal Refuses to Screen Bollywood Spy Comedy Udta Teer
Nepal’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has refused permission for the public screening of Udta Teer, the Bollywood spy comedy starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan, just days before its release in Indian cinemas on October 23. The decision followed a review by the Central Film Censor Board, which found the film had broken a provision of Nepal’s cinema law, although the ministry’s letter does not say which scenes caused the problem.
In the film, directed by Akash A. Kaushik in his directorial debut, Khurrana plays Bilal Ahmad, a Pakistani spy who enters India, loses his memory in an accident and comes to believe he is an Indian spy. The story deals with India-Pakistan tensions, a subject Indian reporting believes lies behind the board’s move. Nepal’s cinema law allows authorities to restrict films whose content is seen as harming national interests or the interests of communities, and Nepal has traditionally been an important neighbouring market for Bollywood releases.
Source: The Daily Jagran
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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