Nation and world news in brief for October 28
UN Security Council to meet today over Israel’s strike on Iran
NEW YORK (Reuters) — The United Nations Security Council will meet today to discuss Israel’s attack on Iran, council president Switzerland said on Sunday.
The Swiss U.N. mission said the meeting had been requested by Iran with the support of Algeria, China and Russia.
“Israeli regime’s actions constitute a grave threat to international peace and security and further destabilize an already fragile region,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a letter to the 15-member council on Saturday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in alignment with the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and under international law, reserves its inherent right to legal and legitimate response to these criminal attacks at the appropriate time,” he wrote.
Scores of Israeli jets completed three waves of strikes before dawn on Saturday against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, Israel’s military said.
It was retaliation for Iran’s Oct. 1 attack on Israel with about 200 ballistic missiles, and Israel warned its heavily armed arch-foe not to hit back after the latest strike.
Chinese hackers collected audio from unnamed Trump campaign adviser, Washington Post reports
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Chinese state-affiliated hackers intercepted audio from the phone calls of U.S. political figures including an unnamed campaign adviser of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said on Friday they were investigating unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by people associated with China.
Trump’s campaign and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Post also reported the hackers were able to access unencrypted communications like text messages, of the individual.
Reuters reported Friday that Chinese hackers also targeted phones used by people affiliated with the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, were targeted, various media outlets reported last week.
Tropical Storm Trami hits Vietnam after killing dozens in the Philippines
(NYT) — Tropical Storm Trami made landfall in Vietnam on Sunday, days after causing widespread flooding and leaving at least 80 people dead in the Philippines, officials said.
Trami reached land near the central Vietnamese city of Danang on Sunday. Vietnam’s national meteorological agency said on social media that the storm was producing maximum wind speeds of 55 mph, or 19 mph below hurricane strength.
The storm had moved west across the South China Sea from the Philippines after killing at least 80 people and injuring 66 others last week, the Philippine Office of Civil Defense said Saturday. An additional 34 people were still missing, the agency said.
As Trami moved inland across Vietnam on Sunday, the country’s meteorological agency said there was a risk of flooding and coastal landslides. It said that some areas south of Danang, one of the country’s largest cities, were forecast to reach up to 16 inches of rain through Monday night.
Before the storm, flights had been suspended at four airports in central Vietnam, including at the Danang International Airport. But all four were reopened Sunday, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.
Tropical Storm Trami caused widespread flooding in several Philippine provinces, forced more than 500,000 people from their homes, damaged nearly 28,000 houses and led to power disruptions in more than 150 cities and municipalities, officials said. Floodwaters prevented relief workers from reaching some hard-hit areas.
McDonald’s rules out beef patties as source of E. coli outbreak
(Reuters) — McDonald’s on Sunday ruled out beef patties as a source of the E. coli outbreak linked to Quarter Pounder hamburgers, which has killed at least one person and sickened nearly 75 others.
“We remain very confident that any contaminated product related to this outbreak has been removed from our supply chain and is out of all McDonald’s restaurants,” the fast-food chain’s Chief Supply Chain Officer Cesar Pina said in a statement.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture said that all subsamples from multiple lots of McDonald’s brand fresh and frozen beef patties had tested negative for E. coli, adding that it had completed beef testing and does not anticipate receiving further samples.
McDonald’s said it would resume distribution of fresh supplies of the Quarter Pounder and that it is expected to be available in all restaurants in the coming week, according to the statement.
Mexico’s Sinaloa state reports 14 murders in one day amid wave of violence
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) — Authorities in Mexico’s Sinaloa state said on Sunday that at least 14 people were killed the day before amid a wave of violence that erupted after drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada’s arrest in the United States.
Most of the killings on Saturday were in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, the state attorney general’s office said.
The prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Sunday that it had opened 10 investigations into the homicides of 14 people.
In recent months, fighting in Culiacan between criminal groups battling for territorial control has disrupted daily life and forced businesses and schools to close.
Violence has flared in the Pacific coast state since the late July arrest of Sinaloa cartel leader Zambada, after he was flown to an airstrip in Texas and promptly taken into custody by U.S. officials.
Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has deployed hundreds of military personnel with armored trucks and high-powered weapons to Sinaloa to try to contain the violence, but the clashes continue.
