Drones that shut Copenhagen Airport sent by ‘capable operator’, Danish police say
Drones that shut Copenhagen Airport sent by ‘capable operator’, Danish police say/node/2616344/world
Drones that shut Copenhagen Airport sent by ‘capable operator’, Danish police say
The Danish police are seen at Copenhagen Airport, in Kastrup near Copenhagen, on September 22, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 22 sec ago
Reuters
Drones that shut Copenhagen Airport sent by ‘capable operator’, Danish police say
Copenhagen Airport was closed for four hours when two or three large drones were seen flying in its immediate vicinity, officials said
Updated 22 sec ago
Reuters
COPENHAGEN: Danish police said on Tuesday that drones that shut the country’s main airport on Monday appeared to have been flown by “a capable operator,” adding that no suspects had been identified.
The airports in Copenhagen and Oslo, the two busiest in the Nordic region, were shut for hours after drones were observed in their airspace late on Monday, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded as flights were diverted.
“We have concluded that this was what we would call a capable operator,” Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the drones observed in Copenhagen.
“It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the will and the tools to show off in this way,” Jespersen said, adding that it was too early to say if the incidents in Denmark and Norway were linked.
Copenhagen Airport was closed for four hours when two or three large drones were seen flying in its immediate vicinity, officials said, while the Oslo Airport was closed for three hours following two sightings, according to local police.
Jespersen said the drones in Denmark came from several different directions, turning their lights on and off, before eventually disappearing after several hours.
Hopes of Western refuge sink for Afghans in Pakistan
In their Pakistan safehouse, Shayma and her family try to keep their voices low so their neighbors don’t overhear their Afghan mother tongue
Updated 3 min 5 sec ago
AFP
ISLAMABAD:In their Pakistan safehouse, Shayma and her family try to keep their voices low so their neighbors don’t overhear their Afghan mother tongue.
But she can belt out Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” any time she likes, and no-one would guess it comes from a 15-year-old refugee in hiding.
“In the kitchen, the sound is very good,” she told AFP alongside her sister and fellow young bandmates.
By now, Shayma should have been testing the acoustics of her new home in New York.
But before her family’s scheduled February flight, US President Donald Trump indefinitely suspended refugee admissions, stranding around 15,000 Afghans already prepared to fly out from Islamabad.
Thousands more are waiting in the city for relocation to other Western nations, but shifting global sentiment toward refugees has diminished their chances and put them at risk of a renewed deportation drive by Pakistan, where they have long exhausted their welcome.
For girls and women, the prospect is particularly devastating: a return to the only country in the world that has banned them from most education and jobs.
“We will do whatever it takes to hide ourselves,” said Shayma’s 19-year-old bandmate, Zahra.
“For girls like us, there is no future in Afghanistan.”
’Not a transit camp’
After the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, tens of thousands of Afghans traveled to neighboring Pakistan to register refugee and asylum applications with Western embassies, often on the advice of officials.
Many had worked for the US-led NATO forces or Western NGOs, while others were activists, musicians or journalists.
Four years on, thousands are still waiting, mostly in the capital Islamabad or its outskirts, desperately hoping that one of the embassies will budge and offer them safe haven.
Hundreds have been arrested and deported in recent weeks, and AFP gave interviewees pseudonyms for their protection.
“This is not an indefinite transit camp,” a Pakistan government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said Pakistan would allow Afghans with pending cases to stay if Western nations assured the government that they would resettle them.
“Multiple deadlines were agreed but they were not honored,” he added.
Miraculous music
The teenaged musicians learned to play guitar back in Kabul at a nonprofit music school for girls, who are now dispersed across Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States.
“We want to use our music for those who don’t have a voice, especially for the girls and women of Afghanistan,” said Zahra, one of the four in Pakistan.
The school opened under Kabul’s previous US-backed government, when foreign-funded initiatives proliferated alongside NATO troops.
Overcoming social taboos, Shayma and her sister Laylama attended the after-school lessons run by an American former arena rocker, who helped kids get off the streets and into guitar practice.
One of 10 siblings, Laylama sold sunflower seeds to help support the family. She had cherished a stringless plastic guitar, until she encountered the real thing.
“Music really changed our life,” she said.
But fearing retribution from the Taliban government, which considers Western music anti-Islamic, Laylama’s father burned her guitar.
“I cried all night,” the 16-year-old told AFP.
’Drastic measures’
Since they were smuggled into Pakistan in April 2022 to apply for refugee status with the United States, Shayma and her bandmates have had to move four times, driven deeper into hiding.
At the start of Pakistan’s crackdown in 2023, the US embassy provided the government with a list of Afghans in its pipeline that should be spared, according to a former staffer with the State Department’s Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts.
That office, and the protections it offered, have been dismantled by the Trump administration.
“Leaving these refugees in limbo is not just arbitrary, it’s cruel,” said Jessica Bradley Rushing of the advocacy coalition #AfghanEvac.
As Pakistan expands its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” to include refugees, it may be seeking leverage over foreign partners in its counter-terrorism campaign, said International Crisis Group analyst Ibraheem Bahiss.
“These are really drastic measures not only to put pressure on the Taliban government but also to show the international community they are very serious,” he told AFP.
For the girls, every day brings the fear that a knock on the door will send them back.
Outside, mosque loudspeakers in Afghan neighborhoods order migrants to leave, while refugees are picked up from their homes or workplaces, or off the street.
To stem their anxiety, the girls maintain rigorous daily routines, starting with the dawn call to prayer.
They rehearse a Farsi version of Coldplay’s “Arabesque” and a riff on Imagine Dragons’ “Believer.”
They also practice English through YouTube videos and reading “Frankenstein.”
“It’s not normal to always stay in the house, especially for children. They should be in nature,” Zahra said.
“But going back to Afghanistan? It’s a horrible idea.”
China cancels schools and flights as it braces for Ragasa, one of the strongest typhoons in years
Hong Kong’s observatory reports Super Typhoon Ragasa is approaching the southern Chinese economic hub of Guangdong
Schools in Hong Kong, Macao and Shenzhen are closed, and at least hundreds of flights have been canceled in the Asian financial hub
Updated 11 min 15 sec ago
AP
HONG KONG: Southern Chinese cities scaled back many aspects of daily life on Tuesday with school and business closures and flight cancelations as the region braced for one of the strongest typhoons in years that has already killed three people and led to the displacement of thousands of others in the Philippines.
Hong Kong’ s observatory said Super Typhoon Ragasa, which was packing maximum sustained winds near the center of about 137 mph (220 kph), is expected to move west-northwest at about 14 mph (22 kph) across the northern part of the South China Sea and edge closer to the coast of Guangdong province, the southern Chinese economic powerhouse.
China’s National Meteorological Center forecast the typhoon would make landfall in the coastal area between Zhuhai and Zhanjiang cities in Guangdong between midday and evening on Wednesday.
Already hoisting a strong wind signal, the observatory in Hong Kong will issue storm warning signal No. 8, the third-highest in the city’s weather alert system, on Tuesday afternoon. It recorded wind speeds of 84 mph (135 kph) near the ground at a distance of about 75 miles (120 km) from the typhoon’s center, indicating a wide coverage of hurricane force.
The city categorizes tropical cyclones with maximum sustained winds near the center of 185 kph (115 mph) or above as super typhoons to make residents extra vigilant about the approach of more intense storms.
The water level is forecast to rise about 2 meters (6.5 feet) over coastal areas in the Asian financial hub on Wednesday morning, and the maximum water level in some areas could hit 4 to 5 meters (13.1 to 16.4 feet) above the typical lowest sea level.
The government said the water levels could be similar to those recorded during Typhoon Hato in 2017 and Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 — estimated to have caused the city direct economic losses worth over 1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($154 million) and 4.6 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $590 million), respectively.
Residents living in flood-prone areas have already put sandbags and barriers at their doors, while others have put tape on windows and glass doors to brace for strong winds. Many people stockpiled food and daily supplies on Monday, as some market vendors reported that their goods were selling out fast.
Schools were closed in Hong Kong and the neighboring city of Macao. Other cities such as the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen and Foshan in Guangdong province and Haikou in Hainan province ordered class cancelations and a gradual suspension of other businesses and transportation.
Hundreds of flights were canceled in Hong Kong. Shenzhen airport will halt all flights from Tuesday night. The Macao government was evacuating residents and tourists and ordered bridges to close in the evening as it expected Ragasa would pass within 62 miles (100 kilometers) to the south of the casino hub on Wednesday morning.
At least six people were injured and over 7,000 people were evacuated in Taiwan when the typhoon swept south of the island, and over 8,000 households were impacted by a power outage, the Central News Agency reported.
In the Philippines, Ragasa left at least three people dead and five others missing and displaced more than 17,500 people in flooding and landslides set off by the most powerful storm to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago this year, the country’s disaster-response agency and provincial officials said.
The dead included a 74-year-old man, who died while being brought to a hospital after being pinned in one of four vehicles that were partly buried by mud, rocks and trees that cascaded down a mountainside onto a narrow road on Monday in the mountain town of Tuba in Benguet province, officials said.
Two other villagers died in the storm, including a resident in Calayan town, a cluster of islands off northern Cagayan province where the super typhoon made landfall on Monday, officials said without providing details.
Ragasa, Tagalog for scramble, prompted the Philippine government on Monday to close schools and government offices in the densely populated capital region and 29 northern provinces. Fishing boats and ferries were prohibited from venturing into very rough seas and domestic flights were canceled.
Trump to take aim at ‘globalist institutions,’ make case for his foreign policy record in UN speech
The US president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars
Updated 38 min 19 sec ago
AP
NEW YORK: Watched by the world, President Donald Trump returns to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver a wide-ranging address on his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.
World leaders will be listening closely to his remarks at the UN General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish US support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.
After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end US participation in the UN Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of US membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.
“There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump said of the UN last week.
The US president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza,Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.
Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.
The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Some US lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using US forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in US courts.
“This is by far the most stressed the UN system has ever been in its 80 years,” said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.
Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars.
“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said.
Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, , Indonesia, Turkiye, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.
Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech
Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the US and Israel vehemently oppose.
France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the UN aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.
Leavitt said Trump sees the push as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”
Trump, for his part, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address has tried to keep focus on getting agreement on a ceasefire that leads Hamas to releasing its remaining 48 hostages, including 20 still believed be alive.
“I’d like to see a diplomatic solution,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “There’s a lot of anger and a lot of hatred, you know that, and there has been for a lot of years … but hopefully we’ll get something done.”
Leaders in the room will also be eager to hear what Trump has to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelensky. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelensky and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.
European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.
Trump has Oslo dreams
Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.
He points to his administration’s efforts to end conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.
Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.
Still, Trump’s Nobel ambitions could have impact on the tenor of his address, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
“His speech is going to be driven by how much he really believes he has a chance of getting a Nobel Peace Prize,” Montgomery said. “If he thinks that’s still something he can do, then I think he knows you don’t go into the UN and drop a grenade down the tank hatch and shut it, right?”
Judge orders Trump administration to restore frozen federal grants for UCLA
Updated 23 September 2025
Reuters
WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Monday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to restore frozen federal grants to the University of California, Los Angeles, according to a court filing.
In August, UCLA said the Trump administration froze $584 million of its funding after the federal government reprimanded the school over its handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
The Los Angeles Times and Politico said US District Judge Rita Lin’s ruling ordered that more than $500 million in funding be restored to the university. Lin had previously ordered the Trump administration to restore part of the suspended federal funding to UCLA. The Trump administration has cut or threatened to withhold federal funds to universities over their handling of protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza. The federal government has said that universities, including UCLA, allowed displays of antisemitism during the protests. Pro-Palestinian protesters, including some Jewish groups, have said that their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories should not be characterized as antisemitism. In addition, they have said their advocacy for Palestinian rights should not be equated with extremism.
Lin, a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, said in her order that the indefinite suspensions of grants from the National Institutes of Health were likely “arbitrary and capricious.”
What you will and won’t see at this year’s UN General Assembly
The meeting and expanded recognition of Palestinian statehood will likely have little if any actual impact on the ground, where Israel is waging another major offensive in the Gaza Strip and expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank
Updated 23 September 2025
AP
UNITED NATIONS: The annual high-level gathering at the UN General Assembly this week will see more than 140 world leaders descend upon New York City in an effort to secure global peace and security despite growing divides on how to do that.
Nearly 90 heads of state, 43 heads of government and one crown prince are among the dignitaries to appear on the UN stage beginning on Tuesday to make their case for how to bring an end to regional conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, while addressing the growing climate crisis and the dangers posed by the rapid development and use of artificial intelligence.
Looming over the week-long summit is the internal financial turmoil plaguing the United Nations as it celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding, which emerged from the rubble of World War II.
(L/R) 's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and France's President Emmanuel Macron attend a United Nations Summit on Palestinians at UN headquarters during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on September 22, 2025. (AFP)
Questions about the UN’s relevancy and efficiency have sharpened from supporters and critics alike. Recent US cuts to foreign assistance and the reevaluation of humanitarian contributions by other countries have forced a reckoning for the world body.
Here are five things to look out for this week:
Outcome of the two-state solution conference
The week began with a high-profile meeting chaired by France and focused on garnering support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The hours-long conference ended late Monday with several countries, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco, announcing or confirming their recognition of a Palestinian state, a day after the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal did. Germany, Italy and Japan took part in the conference but did not recognize such a state.
The US and Israel boycotted the event, saying the international push for a Palestinian state rewards Hamas and makes it harder to reach a deal to halt the war and return the remaining hostages.
It came as several US allies, including Canada and the United Kingdom, announced recognition of an independent Palestinian state over the weekend. The meeting and expanded recognition of Palestinian statehood will likely have little if any actual impact on the ground, where Israel is waging another major offensive in the Gaza Strip and expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long opposed Palestinian statehood, has threatened to take even further unilateral action in response. But proponents of the effort, including top UN officials, remain unpersuaded that recognition of Palestine is crucial at this stage of the conflict.
As the US isolates, other world powers reaffirm climate pledges
More than 110 world leaders will speak at a special UN climate summit on Wednesday, designed to get nations to strengthen their required but already late plans to wean themselves from coal, oil and natural gas that cause climate change. Dozens of business leaders are in New York networking in various conferences aimed at greener and cleaner energy.
“Don’t believe the doomsters and the gloomsters and the naysayers who say that somehow the world is moving away from climate action, clean energy,” United Kingdom climate chief Ed Millibrand said.
The nations of the world were all supposed to come up with new five-year plans for curbing carbon emissions by February, leading into the Brazil negotiations. But only 47 of the 195 nations — responsible for less than a quarter of global emissions — have done so. UN officials said they really need to be submitted by the end of this month so experts can calculate how the world is doing in its emission reduction efforts.
The world’s biggest emitter, China, and another top polluter, the European Union, are expected to announce their plans or rough sketches of their plans this week. The United Nations session this week is designed to cajole countries to do more.
Trump returns to UN after retreating US from world stage
President Donald Trump will be the second leader to speak when the General Assembly kicks off its debate Tuesday morning. Trump will be returning to the UN for the first time since beginning his second term in January.
His speech will be among the most anticipated as America’s allies and adversaries wait to see what the president will say about ongoing efforts to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. UN officials will be holding their breath to see if more funding cuts from the US — their largest donor — are on the horizon after Trump and his allies spent the first few months in office slashing international aid spending.
He issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the US from the UN’s World Health Organization. That was followed by ending US participation in the UN Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of US membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.
“There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump told reporters last week as he prepared for his address to the General Assembly.
Eyes on Syria and Iran’s presidents at high-stakes moment
Following Trump’s remarks, the two other headline speakers come from the Middle East, where various conflicts have thrown the region into further tumult over the last several years. On Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will appear on the UN stage at a moment of great magnitude for his country, as a 30-day window to stop the reimposition of sanctions on Tehran is closing at the end of this week.
The clock started when France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Aug. 28 declared Iran wasn’t complying with its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. It also comes after a series of last-ditch diplomatic talks to avoid reimposing UN sanctions appeared to break down in recent days, with European leaders accusing Iran of not being serious about the conditions outlined.
Pezeshkian and his foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, have the next few days to meet with their European counterparts in New York to come to a resolution that would avoid the series of financial penalties that would push the already crippling Iranian economy into further disarray.
A few hours later, Iran’s once strategic ally, Syria, will debut its new leader, the first head of state to represent the war-torn country at the UN in nearly six decades. Ahmad Al-Sharaa will officially represent the new Syria on the world stage for the first time since the ousting of then-President Bashar Assad in December by a lightning insurgent offensive led by Al-Sharaa.
Al-Sharaa has spent nine months seeking to restore ties with Arab countries and the West, where officials were initially wary of his past ties with the Al-Qaeda militant group. His speech on Wednesday will also be watched closely by the US, which previously designated Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the rebel group Al-Sharaa formerly led, as a terrorist group.
All the meetings you won’t see
Some of the most tantalizing and impactful diplomacy conducted during the UN General Assembly will likely happen behind the scenes during embassy receptions and at private dinners and drinks at some of Manhattan’s most exclusive restaurants and clubs.
The high-level week, noted by some UN watchers as the World Cup of diplomacy, is jam-packed with official and unofficial gatherings between heads of state and government, where complex trade deals, sensitive peace negotiations, and even normalization efforts between allies and adversaries alike could see breakthroughs.
Officials state that more than 1,600 bilateral meetings are scheduled to take place inside the sprawling UN campus that oversees the East River.
