A total of 131 cases were recorded nationally between 2000 and 2025, 17 of which were fatal, the CDC’s database says The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its estimate of annual human plague infections in the country, lowering it from seven to five. On Wednesday, the CDC amended its Plague Maps and Statistics page, which now states: “An average of five human plague cases are reported each year in the United States.” The previous version, dated March 2025, cited seven cases annually, although its own year-by-year data already showed an average of approximately five. The agency has not provided an explanation for the revision. According to the CDC’s current data, there were a total of 131 plague cases across the US between 2000 and 2025, 17 of which were lethal. The highest number of cases dates back to 2006 (17) and 2015 (16). In the latter case, four people...
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The government says the reform would ensure stability while opponents accuse it of changing the rules ahead of a 2027 vote Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ruling coalition is pushing through a controversial electoral reform that would award bonus parliamentary seats to winning alliances. The government says the measure would promote political stability, while opponents accuse it of changing the rules to bolster its chances of retaining power in next year’s election. The controversial bill has cleared three confidence votes in the lower house of parliament, with the final secret ballot scheduled for Thursday. It passed on Wednesday by 228 votes to 144, bringing the government closer to securing ultimate approval for the overhaul. The reform would replace Italy’s current electoral system, which combines directly elected constituency seats with proportional representation, with a fu...
Maria del Carmen Abascal lived in her Madrid apartment for seven decades before losing a legal battle with a firm seeking to triple her rent Maria del Carmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction sparked massive housing protests across Spain, has died in a Madrid hospital after a protracted legal battle with a real estate firm over the home she had lived in for seven decades. Her death was announced by the Madrid Tenants’ Union, prompting hundreds of protesters in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square to hold a minute of silence for Abascal, widely known as ‘Maricarmen’. Abascal became a symbol of growing anger over Spain’s housing crisis, where the average rent has almost doubled over the past decade, with protests often blaming investment “vulture funds” – such as Blackstone and BlackRock – for the trend. The protests erupted in force on Sep...
Three years after the attack, residents near Gaza are torn between demanding Netanyahu’s departure and backing an even harder right For residents of Israel’s Gaza Envelope, the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, was not an abstract national trauma. Communities close to the Gaza border were among the first to come under assault, and residents spent hours locked in safe rooms, hiding from gunmen and rocket fire. Three years later, that shared experience has produced sharply different political conclusions among people living in the same region. Michal Koren Kariv, a 50-year-old filmmaker from Kibbutz Mefalsim, remembers that morning all too well. As Hamas launched its deadly assault on communities across southern Israel, her family remained inside their home as armed militants reached the area. They spent hours in a protected room without electricity, unsure of what was happening outside. When the fa...
Jaafar Ashtiyeh was reportedly struck with rifle butts despite being clearly identified as press, while around a dozen IDF soldiers looked on Armed Israeli settlers have beaten and robbed an AFP photographer marked as press in the occupied West Bank, according to media reports. Around a dozen IDF soldiers were present and did not intervene. Veteran Palestinian photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh was hospitalized after being repeatedly struck with rifle butts. The assault is the latest in a growing series of attacks on journalists in the West Bank. The Committee to Protect Journalists documented at least 16 incidents involving 35 Palestinian, Israeli and international journalists in the first eight months of 2026 alone, already exceeding the 13 incidents involving 25 journalists it recorded throughout 2025. Read more Zionist West Bank occupation mobs...
Rassvet could become “more or less unblockable” once fully deployed, Eric Schmidt has said Russia’s emerging Rassvet satellite network – often described as a “Starlink rival” – could provide Moscow’s military with sustainable communications and data to attack any target in Ukraine at will, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has warned. Speaking to The Economist last week, Schmidt noted that while Ukraine was initially seen as the main innovator in the conflict, Russia had largely closed that gap while pressing its advantage with far greater resources. Schmidt noted that one of these domains is Russia’s Rassvet satellite project, which he suggested was about a year from maturity. “Once that network is in place, it is more or less unblockable,” he warned, adding that this could let Russian forces “hunt anywhere” inside Ukraine. ...