EU investigates fraud in Spain rail funds after fatal Madrid crash

🔮 Canada budget charts ‘economic independence’ in decisive shift from US Titled ‘Masters of our Destiny’, plan warns old trade relationship with US will not return Canada unveiled a budget on Thursday that calls for “economic independence” and says that while reducing its reliance on the United States will take time, “the shift is under way”.

🔮 Netanyahu rival Eisenkot tipped to seek Israeli government with backing of Arab lists Former Israeli military chief secures 67 recommendations, but faces uphill battle to build majority Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he will announce on Sunday whom he will task with trying to form a new government, after the opposition’s Gadi Eisenkot secured a commanding number of recommendations to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

🔮 One tarantula can sell for about €500 ($560) in Europe, Suarez said, meaning the wildlife trafficking scheme would be potentially worth €1.5m for just one trip.

🔮 India-born leftist Nithya Raman becomes LA mayor, beating incumbent Karen Bass Her victory is another win for candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America India-born democratic socialist Nithya Raman ousted incumbent Democrat Karen Bass to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, ending a heated race that saw the one-time allies spar over frustration with the status quo. Bass called Raman on Thursday to concede, after the latest numbers showed Raman with 52 per cent of the vote against the outgoing mayor’s 48 per cent, with three-quarters of votes counted. Raman, 45, campaigned in the nation’s second-largest city on a platform of “pothole politics” – dubbing broken street lights and jagged pavements as failures of her predecessor’s leadership – while harnessing the anger of younger voters over affordability.

🔮 The US first lady has also said that she would host representatives from Kyiv and Moscow in Washington Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday awarded US first lady Melania Trump a national honour for her role in brokering a partial ceasefire that allowed the evacuation of civilians from a Russian-occupied town. “I hereby decree that the Order of Princess Olga, First Class, be awarded to Melania Trump, first lady of the United States of America,” a decree

🔮 Canada to curb reliance on US despite Trump team’s crushing midterm loss, minister says Trade negotiations will still be held with Trump’s White House and not the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress Canada’s push to reduce economic dependence on the US will not change after President Donald Trump’s Republican Party suffered a crushing midterm election defeat, an official said on Wednesday.

🔮 Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband says an apology will not pave the way for financial compensation as London will not ‘shift our position’

🔮 Blow for Netanyahu as Israeli election body rejects claims of Arab party fraud The prime minister has alleged fraud by Arab-majority parties, pointing to the arrests of people with envelopes of cash on polling day President Isaac Herzog will at noon officially receive the results of the October 27 election as he decides whether to give Netanyahu or his rival, Gadi Eisenkot, the first chance to form a government, with neither commanding enough votes alone.

🔮 With the diverse opposition bloc winning 48 seats and Netanyahu securing 53, Arab-majority parties’ 19 could be the decider Meeting for the first time since an election a week ago brought an inconclusive result, the five opposition party heads consulted on strategy at a hotel in Herzliya, the tech industry hub north of Tel Aviv where former military chief Eisenkot lives.

🔮 Iran warns new war with US could last longer as Trump threatens ‘the hammer’