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Washington (AFP) – “There is still a chance” of avoiding a government shutdown, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young tells reporters.

New York (AFP) – Images show a flooded road near McCarren Park in Brooklyn, after havy rains overnight in the northeastern United States left parts of New York City under water on Friday. IMAGES

Madrid (AFP) – “I’m worried, like everyone else” says Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, asked about a bribery case engulfing La Liga rivals Barcelona. Ancelotti’s comments come a day after a Spanish judge charged the Catalan club over alleged payments to a former refereeing vice-president. Speaking during a press conference ahead of his team’s trip to shock league leaders, Girona, Ancelotti also bemoans a hectic schedule, saying that international competitions “have the biggest impact on all the teams in Europe.”

Tamworth (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Beatboxers from around the UK and from overseas gather at a club in Tamworth, near Birmingham, to compete in an event organised by NUE Beatbox UK. “A lot of these people had never met” says NUE founder, Vic Brown, who explains that events like his are “bringing the beatbox community together again” after Covid lockdowns. Luke Chong, a beatboxer from Singapore, says the competition was “an eye-opening experience”. Another beatboxer at the event, Alex Hackett, believes the mixture of musical genres on show in the UK beatboxing scene makes it “a really beautiful thing for people to witness.”

Moscow (AFP) – People gather at Red Square in central Moscow for a concert dedicated to the first anniversary of the claimed annexation of four Ukrainian regions of Ukraine. Russia claimed to annex Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022, but does not fully control any of them. IMAGES

Valletta (AFP) – Family photo of the leaders of nine Mediterranean and southern European countries for a meeting in Malta with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, for talks set to focus on migration. The summit comes a day after EU interior ministers finally made headway on new rules for how the bloc handles asylum seekers and irregular migrants. IMAGES

Mastung (Pakistan) (AFP) – A deadly suicide bomb attack in Pakistan’s Mastung has targeted a religious procession, with a second blast hitting a mosque hundreds of kilometres to the north, killing a further four. The attack comes as the country grapples with political and economic crises, as well as an uptick in militant violence.

Shanghai (AFP) – Chinese travellers throng the country’s transport networks as an eight-day national holiday kicks off, the first October break since the end of strict zero-Covid policies that separated families and hammered the tourism industry.

Caracas (AFP) – Some 100 activists gather in front of Venezuela’s National Assembly building in Caracas to demand the decriminalization of abortion on International Safe Abortion Day.

Rotterdam (Netherlands) (AFP) – Patients at Erasmus MC University Hospital in Rotterdam talk about the panic that ensued after a gunman went on a shooting rampage. The suspect opened fire in a hospital classroom and a private home, killing three.

San Miguel Petapa (Guatemala) (AFP) – “I was making some eggs for my grandchildren” says Zoila Gonzalez, “when the whole kitchen came down”. Zoila’s is one of many houses destroyed by heavy rain and flooding as Guatemala experiences a deadly rainy season. Running until November, this current season has left 29 dead and caused more than 10,000 to be evacuated.

Paris (AFP) – “Science is becoming a matter of belief, opinion and even ideology” says Francois Gemenne, political scientist and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “I see the Republican candidates in the United States who don’t accept the scientific reality of climate change” he adds, speaking during an interview with AFP. Gemenne worries that if “science and fact become a matter of belief… we can’t move forward in a democracy.”