The FBI said Sunday it “is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination” of former President Donald Trump, who is safe after shots were fired at Trump International Golf Club.

A man is in custody in connection with the incident, officials said. The person detained is Ryan Wesley Routh, according to three law enforcement sources, quoted by CNN.

A Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel sticking out of fence and “engaged” with the suspect, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a news conference late Sunday afternoon. The suspect fled in a car and was taken into custody after being stopped on the highway.

The gunman was 300 to 500 yards away from Trump, a Secret Service official said. Law enforcement found an AK-47 style rifle, GoPro and backpacks where the suspect was positioned, Bradshaw said.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are both “relieved to know” that Trump is safe and have been briefed on the situation, according to the White House.

US chief justice meddling in Trump’s cases, says leaked memo

US chief Justice John Roberts strong-armed his fellow Supreme Court judges into allowing him the key role in cases involving Donald Trump, leaked memos reveal.

The conservative judge took the lead in March’s case on whether states could remove the former president from their ballots over his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Roberts demanded a unanimous decision from the bench according to memos leaked to the New York Times.

He also took charge of the case concerning prosecution of the January 6 rioters himself from Justice Samuel Alito after his fellow conservative was embroiled in a row about his wife flying the Stars and Stripes upside down from their home.

8 confirmed dead as storm Boris lashes Central Europe

Storm Boris has claimed a sixth victim in southeastern Romania, emergency services announced, also reporting the disappearance of one person.

The total number of deaths due to bad weather in Central Europe thus rises to eight, with one confirmed victim in Poland and one in Austria.

In the Czech Republic, four people have been reported missing.

Following the meteorological episode of the past few days, a new death has been recorded in the Galati region, where five people have already died due to floods, according to a statement from Romanian authorities.

In Romania, almost 6,000 families have been affected by the storm, and only 300 of them have found refuge with neighbours or in tents set up by the authorities.

Israel vows ‘heavy price’ for Houthi missile strike

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Yemen’s Houthis will pay a “heavy price” after a missile fired by the group landed in central Israel.

The Israeli military said the missile landed in an uninhabited area early on Sunday, but that shrapnel indicated air defence systems had failed to destroy it before it entered Israeli airspace.

It added that it was investigating how the missile was able to reach so far into Israeli territory.

The strike marks the first time a missile fired by the group has reached central Israel, which is around 2,000 kilometres from Yemen.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said there had been repeated attempts to shoot the missile down on Sunday but that it most likely fragmented in mid-air.

The Houthis claimed the operation used a new type of hypersonic missile, which may help explain the failure of efforts to intercept it.

They are an armed group that seized much of Yemen in the country’s ongoing civil war and have declared themselves part of the Iran-led “axis of resistance” against Israel, the US, and the wider West.

The Houthis said in a statement that Sunday’s attack was carried out in solidarity with the Palestinians and that Israel should expect more ahead of the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

Missile fragments landed at a railway station in the city of Modiin, causing some damage, and in open ground near Israel’s main international airport on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

The damage is believed to have been caused by Israel’s own interceptor missiles.

Netanyahu said the strike showed that Israel was in a “multi-front battle against Iran’s axis of evil that strives to destroy us”.

“The Houthis should have known by now that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” he said. “Anyone who attacks us will not escape from our arms. Hamas is already learning this in our determined action that will lead to its destruction and the release of all of our hostages.”

Israeli forces launched a campaign to destroy Hamas following the October  7 attacks, which saw around 1,200 people killed and another 251 taken to Gaza as hostages. More than 41,206 people have been killed in Gaza since the campaign began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

This is not the first time the Houthis have attacked Israel. In July, a man was killed and eight people were injured after a Houthi drone landed in Tel Aviv.

Previously, almost all Houthi missiles and drones fired towards Israel had been intercepted and none were known to have reached Tel Aviv.

In response, Israeli jets attacked the city of Hodeidah in Yemen, causing a huge fire which engulfed one of the country’s most important oil storage facilities.

Some 40 rockets cross into Israeli territory from Lebanon

Approximately 40 rockets crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon, the IDF said, following the alerts which sounded in the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights starting at 8:19 a.m. local time.

The Jerusalem Post rteports some of the rockets were intercepted while others impacted in open areas, the military added.

Firefighters were operating to extinguish the fires which had erupted following the falls.

The military further stated that it had struck a terror squad in the Chebaa area of southern Lebanon. The IDF artillery also fired at several areas in southern Lebanon.

UAE proposes Arab coalition to secure the Egypt-Gaza border

The United Arab Emirates has put forward a proposal to deploy a coalition of Arab forces to secure the Egypt-Gaza border, according to sources cited by media.

The UAE envisions forming a coalition that would include Morocco, Mauritania, and Djibouti.

The UAE’s plan, which has been discussed with Egypt and other key nations, focuses on the Philadelphia Corridor, an area currently controlled by Israeli forces as part of their military operations in Gaza.

The proposal is part of broader talks led by Abu Dhabi on how to manage security and stability in Gaza after the ongoing conflict, which erupted on October 7, comes to an end.

Egyptian officials are reportedly reviewing the plan as part of efforts to address potential post-war arrangements in the region.

Tensions between Egypt and Israel have been affected by a dispute over Israel’s occupation of the Philadelphia Corridor, violating previous agreements between the two countries.

Amid this situation, Egypt has yet to officially receive the nomination letter for Israel’s new ambassador to Cairo, Uri Rothman, following the end of the previous ambassador Amira Oron’s term.

According to The New Arab, Oron’s term ended three weeks ago, but Egypt has not yet received Rothman’s formal appointment, despite Israel following the necessary diplomatic procedures.

As the Israeli aggression on Gaza continues, Morocco has emerged as a potential member of an international peacekeeping force in Palestinian territories, a possibility raised by both the Biden administration and the Israeli government since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, 2023.

In October, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had floated the idea of deploying an Arab force to stabilise Gaza. He specifically named Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE as countries that could participate, given their diplomatic ties with Israel, to help secure the Gaza-Israel border.

The 33rd Arab Summit in Bahrain, held on May 16, called for  the need for United Nations peacekeeping troops to provide protection in Palestinian areas under occupation.

‘End EU benefits for Ukrainian men of fighting age’ – Poland

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski urged EU governments to stop providing social support to Ukrainian men of fighting age who are refugees in their countries.

During the Yalta European Strategy, a forum for discussing Ukraine’s European future which was held in Kyiv, Sikorski said that to “help Ukraine’s war effort”, there should be “no financial incentives for avoiding the draft in Ukraine”.

He made reference to Russian drones crossing into NATO members’ airspace as reasons for EU governments to stop paying social security benefits to men of draft age, and strengthen defence efforts against Russia.

On September 8, two NATO members said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one flew into Romania during night-time attacks on neighbouring Ukraine while another crashed in eastern Latvia.

Sikorski said that money could be spent on the prevention of these airspace violations, stating that would help both Ukraine and Europe. “As you know, a significant proportion of Russian missiles and, and drones go AWOL,” he said.

Sikorski also pointed to the risk of Russian drones hitting Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. “We know what happens when a nuclear plant blows in Ukraine. All of Europe has a problem. So I’m saying we could help Ukraine by strengthening the protection of Ukrainian power plants from air assault.”

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine is Europe’s largest nuclear plant, and has already been under threat of Russian attacks.

Sikorski said that ending financial aid to Ukrainian men would save countries like the Netherlands and Germany “tens of billions of euros” if they decided to spend it elsewhere. “It’s not a human right to be paid to avoid the draft, to defend your country.”

Russia still has a strong advantage over Ukraine in terms of soldiers as well as weapons. Earlier this year, Ukraine already implemented measures that included lowering the call-up age for combat duty to 25 from 27 to increase the pace of mobilisation into the army.

Quake hits Catania province coast

An earthquake of magnitude 3.3 was recorded at 2:02 off the east coast of Sicily, off the coast of the province of Catania.

According to data from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), the earthquake had a hypocenter at a depth of 23 km and an epicenter 8 km from Riposto.

No damage to people or things has been reported.

Italian army will guard a hospital after attacks on medical workers

Italy’s army will guard medical staff at a hospital in the southern Calabria region as of today, after a string of violent attacks on doctors and nurses by enraged patients and relatives across Italy, local media reported.

Prefect Paolo Giovanni Grieco approved a plan to reinforce the surveillance services already operated by soldiers on sensitive targets in the Calabrian town of Vibo Valentia, including the hospital, the reports said.

Recent attacks on health care workers have been particularly frequent in southern Italy, prompting the doctors’ national guild to request that the army be deployed to ensure medical staff safety.

The turning point was an assault at the Policlinico hospital in the southern city of Foggia in early September. A group of about 50 relatives and friends of a 23-year-old woman – who died during emergency surgery – turned their grief and rage into violence, attacking the hospital staff.

Video footage, widely circulated on social media, showed doctors and nurses barricading in a room to escape the attack. Some of them were punched and injured. The director of the hospital threatened to close its emergency room after denouncing three similar attacks in less than a week.

With over 16,000 reported cases of physical and verbal assaults nationwide in 2023 alone, Italian doctors and nurses have called for drastic measures.

England could face ban from own Euros – UEFA

England could be banned from competing at their own Euros if British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pushes ahead with plans to create a men’s football regulator, Uefa has warned.

A leaked copy of a letter from Uefa’s general secretary, Theodore Theodoridis to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, has warned against any ‘government interference in the running of football’.

According to a source, the letter lays out the huge ramifications on not only the national side but the potential impact on top Premier League teams like Manchester City and Liverpool participating in the Champions League.

Europe’s football governing body is said to be ‘watching closely’ and will step in if ‘a line is crossed’ that could see England being thrown out of Uefa.

That in turn would put any hopes in tatters of England playing in the next World Cup as Uefa administers the qualifiers for the tournament.