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13 Dead after Small Tourist Plane Crashes in Peru

Footage circulated on social media of the plane crash site
Footage circulated on social media of the plane crash site
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13 Dead after Small Tourist Plane Crashes in Peru

Footage circulated on social media of the plane crash site
Footage circulated on social media of the plane crash site

A small plane carrying foreign tourists to view Peru's famed Nazca Lines archaeological site crashed Saturday, killing all 13 people on board, police said.

Seven Italians, two Germans and two Spaniards were killed, along with two crew members, a spokesman for the transport ministry said.

The incident occurred shortly after 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) after the Cessna 208 Caravan took off from the airport in Pisco, located about 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of the capital Lima.

"We have information that 11 passengers and two crew members have died," Police Major Jorge Andrade told reporters at the crash site.

"Given the severity of the accident, there are no survivors. We have recovered four bodies so far," Andrade said, without identifying the victims.

He also did not give any immediate indication of what may have caused the crash.

Peru's civil aviation authority and the air accident agency will investigate the accident, the transport ministry said. Agents were already on the scene collecting evidence.

Firefighters and police, some wearing face masks, were working amid the twisted, smoldering wreckage of the aircraft. Some carried garbage bags.

One wheel of the plane sat near the debris, completely detached from the aircraft.

Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori said her government was mulling the possible closure of the Pisco airport.

- 'In-flight emergency' -

The Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs etched into the desert sands that date back to between 500 BC and 500 AD.

The meaning of the geometric shapes and animal outlines remains a mystery, with some believing they had ritual astronomical functions, according to UNESCO, which declared the area a World Heritage site in 1994.

The doomed plane was operated by AeroDiana, which offers sightseeing trips lasting 30 minutes to an hour over the site, which is best seen from the air.

AeroDiana told AFP that it would soon release more information about the crash.

Municipal officials in Vista Alegre, where the plane crashed, said in a statement that preliminary information indicated an "in-flight emergency" was to blame, without offering more details.

One resident of Vista Alegre said the plane exploded on impact.

Dozens of small planes operate from the airport in Pisco, handling a large volume of primarily foreign tourists hoping to visit the Nazca Lines.

Such accidents have occurred before. In 2022, seven people were killed in a plane crash, including two Chileans and three Dutch nationals.

In October 2010, four British tourists and two Peruvian crew members died when an AirNasca plane crashed after taking the tourists to view the site.

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World

US Midterm Early Voting Hits Record 48 Million

A vote here sign and electioneering distance marker sit outside the Tom Green County Elections Office and polling location in San Angelo, Texas, US October 28, 2026. (Reuters)
A vote here sign and electioneering distance marker sit outside the Tom Green County Elections Office and polling location in San Angelo, Texas, US October 28, 2026. (Reuters)
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US Midterm Early Voting Hits Record 48 Million

A vote here sign and electioneering distance marker sit outside the Tom Green County Elections Office and polling location in San Angelo, Texas, US October 28, 2026. (Reuters)
A vote here sign and electioneering distance marker sit outside the Tom Green County Elections Office and polling location in San Angelo, Texas, US October 28, 2026. (Reuters)

A record 47.9 million Americans have already voted in next week's US midterm elections, with participation surging in key battleground states and registered Democrats outpacing Republicans, figures showed Friday.

The University of Florida's Election Lab had recorded 47,922,669 early votes nationwide by midday, surpassing the previous midterm record of 45.9 million cast ahead of Election Day in 2022.

The surge is especially pronounced in states with fiercely contested Senate races that could determine control of the chamber during the final two years of President Donald Trump's presidency.

In Texas, more than six million people had voted early by Wednesday, according to official figures, with in-person turnout running around 50 percent ahead of the same stage in 2022.

North Carolina's election board reported early voting up nearly 37 percent on the same point four years ago, while South Carolina surpassed its entire 2022 early vote total on Monday, with five days of early voting still to go.

In Kansas, where Republican Senator Roger Marshall faces a tough re-election fight, advance ballots were running around two-thirds ahead of 2022 last week, according to the secretary of state's office.

In states that record voters' party affiliation, registered Democrats have accounted for a substantially larger share of early ballots than Republicans.

Election Lab figures showed Democrats making up around 44 percent of early voters in those states, compared with 31 percent for Republicans and 25 percent for unaffiliated or minor-party voters.

University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald, who oversees the Election Lab, has pointed to rising participation among Black and Hispanic voters in states that report racial and ethnic data, with particularly strong turnout in heavily Hispanic communities along the Texas-Mexico border.

In Georgia, where early in-person voting broke the state's midterm record on Thursday, women accounted for 56 percent of ballots cast by that day, compared with 44 percent for men.

"Georgians continue to head to the polls in record numbers because they trust the system," top elections official Brad Raffensperger said Thursday.

But experts warn against interpreting the figures as a prediction of the election outcome.

A voter's party registration does not reveal which candidates they supported, and tens of millions more Americans are expected to cast ballots on Tuesday.

In recent elections Republicans have tended to turn out in greater numbers on Election Day, potentially narrowing or reversing the Democrats' early advantage.

And higher early participation does not necessarily translate into higher overall turnout, since some voters may simply be casting ballots sooner than in previous elections.

World

Pope Leo Makes History with US Midterm Vote

Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful as he leaves after the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on October 28, 2026. (AFP)
Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful as he leaves after the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on October 28, 2026. (AFP)
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Pope Leo Makes History with US Midterm Vote

Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful as he leaves after the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on October 28, 2026. (AFP)
Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful as he leaves after the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on October 28, 2026. (AFP)

Pope Leo XIV, the Catholic Church's first US-born pontiff, has voted in the United States midterm elections, the first known time a pope has voted in a political election.

The pope, who has clashed with US President Donald Trump, submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago, the Vatican said Friday.

The Chicago-born pontiff "has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so" and believes in "the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes," it said.

A rift earlier this year between US President Donald Trump and the pope sparked global headlines.

Leo and Trump repeatedly clashed over papal criticism of the harsh crackdown on immigration in the United States and of the war on Iran, with Trump calling the pontiff "weak" on crime and "terrible" on foreign policy.

The pope said he was "not afraid" of Trump.

In April, after Trump's threat to destroy Iran, Leo called on everyone to do their part for peace, urging them to "contact the authorities -- political leaders, congressmen -- to ask them, to tell them, to work for peace and to reject war and violence."

The crucial US midterm elections are scheduled to be held on November 3.

In September, Leo urged the faithful to shake off "all passivity and indifference" toward current events.

"We cannot remain as unengaged spectators; rather, we must listen with our hearts, allow ourselves to be challenged, and become involved," he said during the weekly general audience in St Peter's Square.

Robert Francis Prevost, as he was known before his papal election, voted in Democratic primaries in 2008 and 2010 and in three Republican primaries in the years that followed, according to the New York Times, citing state and local records.

In primary elections in Illinois, voters may choose any party's ballot at the polls, and Prevost varied in his selection, it said.

Prevost spent nearly two decades as a missionary in Peru and has both US and Peruvian citizenship.

"He has also confirmed that, during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so," the Vatican said.

World

EU and Canada to ‘Withstand Shocks Together’ with New Alliance

Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, flanked by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Antonio Costa arrive for their closing news conference during the EU-Canada summit in Montreal on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, flanked by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Antonio Costa arrive for their closing news conference during the EU-Canada summit in Montreal on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
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EU and Canada to ‘Withstand Shocks Together’ with New Alliance

Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, flanked by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Antonio Costa arrive for their closing news conference during the EU-Canada summit in Montreal on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, flanked by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Antonio Costa arrive for their closing news conference during the EU-Canada summit in Montreal on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa held talks with Canada's Mark Carney in Montreal Friday to finalize a new partnership in a world dominated by the United States and China.

The two parties are set to unveil a series of deals -- from critical minerals to artificial intelligence -- and lay the groundwork for a broader alliance open to other democracies seeking to better navigate global trade tensions.

"It means affordability, more competition, more choice, easier access. It means opportunity," Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, said of closer cooperation with the European Union, as he arrived at the talks.

"And it means, at its base, sovereignty, greater resilience, ability to withstand shocks together."

Already sharing a free trade agreement, Canada and the EU have sought to move closer together since President Donald Trump's return to the White House upended relations with Washington's traditional allies.

Both Canada and the EU have been hit with US tariffs and territorial threats.

Von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said Canada could not become a "full-fledged" EU member due to its geographical location, but said the bloc wanted to bring it "as close as possible".

A senior EU official explained the new relationship would be unique to Canada.

It entails aligning policies, such as on climate and artificial intelligence, Canada joining some EU programs, and creating a stable governance framework, the official said.

The partners are expected to kick off with a series of deals on Friday.

Critical minerals are a key focus of the two-day summit which officially began Thursday evening.

They are needed for green technologies such as batteries and wind turbines that Europe sources mostly from China but are also in plentiful stock in Canada.

But Canada needs massive infrastructure investment to jump-start its mining industry.

An agreement allowing the European Investment Bank to back Canadian critical mineral projects is expected to be unveiled at the summit.

- 'Alliance for the Future' -

Brussels and Ottawa also want to collaborate on AI, a field where they are playing catch-up with the United States and China.

Europe is ready to open its supercomputing infrastructure to Canadian researchers, industry and start-ups, von der Leyen said.

On Thursday, Ottawa announced a CAN$1.6 billion ($1.1 billion) investment in the Canadian AI firm Cohere. The company has recently partnered with Germany's Aleph Alpha in a move that Carney said was an example of what Europe and Canada could do together.

"We are not waiting for the future of AI to be decided somewhere else by those we don't know or by those we don't trust," Carney said.

A digital trade deal allowing faster and cheaper online transactions is also in the offering.

The two parties should also work towards Canada's participation in EU initiatives like the Erasmus program, which allows university students to spend a semester abroad, and the Galileo satellite program -- an alternative to the American Global Positioning System (GPS).

The summit will additionally establish the basis for a larger "Alliance for the Future" open to other "trusted partners" such as Japan, South Korea or Australia, the senior EU official said.

This idea is to form a "common space for economic prosperity" and better coordinate trade policies such as tariffs to avoid mutual harm, the official said.

"There is always a risk that inadvertently you hit one of your partners with your economic measures," the official noted.