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Iran Says US Airman Rescue May Have Been Cover to ‘Steal Enriched Uranium’

A still image purporting to show smoke rising from the site of the US aircraft destroyed during the US mission to find a stranded airman in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards said according to Iranian media, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Isfahan, Iran, released on April 5, 2026. (Social Media/via Reuters)
A still image purporting to show smoke rising from the site of the US aircraft destroyed during the US mission to find a stranded airman in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards said according to Iranian media, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Isfahan, Iran, released on April 5, 2026. (Social Media/via Reuters)
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Iran Says US Airman Rescue May Have Been Cover to ‘Steal Enriched Uranium’

A still image purporting to show smoke rising from the site of the US aircraft destroyed during the US mission to find a stranded airman in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards said according to Iranian media, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Isfahan, Iran, released on April 5, 2026. (Social Media/via Reuters)
A still image purporting to show smoke rising from the site of the US aircraft destroyed during the US mission to find a stranded airman in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards said according to Iranian media, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Isfahan, Iran, released on April 5, 2026. (Social Media/via Reuters)

Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday that a US operation to rescue a downed airman may have been a cover to "steal enriched uranium" from the country.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump said the US recovered a second crew member of an F-15E that went down over Iran on Friday in what he called a "daring" search and rescue operation.

Iran's military has called it "a deception and escape mission", insisting it was "completely foiled".

On Monday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said there were "many questions and uncertainties" about the operation.

"The area where the American pilot was claimed to be present in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province is a long way from the area where they attempted to land or wanted to land their forces in central Iran," Baqaei said.

"The possibility that this was a deception operation to steal enriched uranium should not be ignored at all."

He added that the operation was "a disaster" for the United States.

Iran's military said several US aircraft had to "make emergency landings" in southern Isfahan province after being hit during the mission, with the US "forced to heavily bombard the downed aircraft" as a result.

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World

Israeli President Says He Won’t Bow to US Pressure on the Next Govt

Israeli President Isaac Herzog addresses a press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Andras Baka (not pictured) at the presidential Sandor Palace in Budapest on October 20, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli President Isaac Herzog addresses a press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Andras Baka (not pictured) at the presidential Sandor Palace in Budapest on October 20, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli President Says He Won’t Bow to US Pressure on the Next Govt

Israeli President Isaac Herzog addresses a press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Andras Baka (not pictured) at the presidential Sandor Palace in Budapest on October 20, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli President Isaac Herzog addresses a press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Andras Baka (not pictured) at the presidential Sandor Palace in Budapest on October 20, 2026. (AFP)

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said on Monday he won’t bend to pressure from US President Donald Trump on which party he will select first to form a government after Tuesday's national elections.

Herzog’s role is largely ceremonial. No single party is expected to outright win control of the country’s parliament, or Knesset.

The president is expected to tap the leader of the party with the most support to try to build a governing coalition, a process that could drag out for days or weeks, or fail entirely and force Israelis to return to the polls to vote again.

Herzog's remarks came after Trump reiterated his endorsement for Netanyahu, who is in a tight race to remain in power.

Herzog told the MS NOW cable news network that neither Trump nor anyone else “can intervene" and that it was up to him to see “what the facts are.”

World

Nigeria Evacuates Ebola Patient to Switzerland

An ambulance is stationed outside the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, October 25, 2026. (Reuters)
An ambulance is stationed outside the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, October 25, 2026. (Reuters)
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Nigeria Evacuates Ebola Patient to Switzerland

An ambulance is stationed outside the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, October 25, 2026. (Reuters)
An ambulance is stationed outside the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, October 25, 2026. (Reuters)

The only confirmed case in Nigeria of Africa's latest deadly Ebola outbreak was evacuated Monday by air from Abuja, the capital, to Switzerland, where she has citizenship.

The patient, the 42-year-old wife of a Swiss embassy staff worker based in Abuja, had been traveling in Uganda with her husband before returning to Nigeria.

Her condition was "much improved, stable, conscious, communicating, and her clinical laboratory test results closing towards baseline", said Nigerian health minister Muhammad Ali Pate in a statement.

"This does not mean she is not still infectious," he added.

Fifty-three of the patient's contacts have been identified by the Nigerian health authorities.

The World Health Organization has warned that Africa is facing a "complex" Ebola outbreak, with the virus now present in the west, east and center of the continent.

The outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is no vaccine or specific treatment, has been ravaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has recorded more than 4,600 deaths since May.

Health authorities in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, successfully stemmed a previous Ebola outbreak a dozen years ago.

But some experts are worried about how much the illness could have spread in the time between the woman's arrival on October 3 and her diagnosis, announced October 20.

World

Russia Says It Caught Ukrainian Agents Preparing Close Range Drone Attack on Moscow’s Air Defenses

A bus rolls along a street in central Moscow on October 19, 2026. (AFP)
A bus rolls along a street in central Moscow on October 19, 2026. (AFP)
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Russia Says It Caught Ukrainian Agents Preparing Close Range Drone Attack on Moscow’s Air Defenses

A bus rolls along a street in central Moscow on October 19, 2026. (AFP)
A bus rolls along a street in central Moscow on October 19, 2026. (AFP)

Russia's ‌FSB security service has thwarted a planned Ukrainian drone attack from inside Russia on a key element of Moscow's air defense system and on an electricity facility, the FSB said on Monday, saying it had arrested two men involved in the plot.

The two men, who the FSB said were from the South Caucasus region and had been ‌acting under ‌instructions from Ukraine's SBU security service, ‌had ⁠retrieved First Person ⁠View drones and explosives from two Russian regions, delivered them to the Moscow region, and configured and activated the drones, the FSB said.

The drones were to be remotely controlled from Ukraine, it said.

"It has been ⁠established that one of the ‌suspects was recruited by ‌an SBU officer and, on that officer’s instructions and ‌in return for a promised monetary ‌reward, travelled to Russia to prepare and carry out a sabotage and terrorist attack. To this end, he enlisted the help of an acquaintance ‌from his close circle," the FSB said.

"The suspects were detained by FSB ⁠officers ⁠while preparing to carry out a terrorist attack on an electricity infrastructure facility and on one of the key components of Moscow's missile defense system," it said.

There was no immediate comment from the SBU or from Ukraine, which has intensified its attempted drone attacks on the Russian capital in recent months, as Russia has stepped up its own attacks on Ukrainian power and other infrastructure targets.