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Most of the migrants are Haitian, have been living in South America and came to Del Rio, Texas, along a common Mexican cartel smuggling route. The numbers under the bridge have ballooned over the past 48 hours, growing from around 5,000 on Wednesday and are expected to rise above 11,000 on Friday.

Source: nbcnews.com

Passengers and cargo will soon be able to shoot through the Egyptian desert aboard a high-speed train, in a first for the country. The high-speed and electrified main rail line will connect Cairo to the New Administrative Capital and surrounding new cities. German company Siemens Mobility signed a contract with Egypt's National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) earlier this month to build the initial 660 kilometers out of the planned 1,800-kilometer network, creating "a Suez Canal type of link on the tracks."

Source: cnn.com

Firefighters are wrapping fire-resistant blankets around ancient trees as blazes tear through California's world-famous Sequoia National Park. Officials fear the fire could reach the Giant Forest, a grove of some of the world's biggest trees, within hours. The forest hosts some 2,000 sequoias, including the 275ft (83m) General Sherman, the biggest tree by volume on Earth and about 2,500 years old. The Colony and Paradise fires have been growing for a week.

Source: bbc.com

No university has been placed higher than the Oxbridge institutions in the guide's 30-year history, or any other domestic university rankings. The University of St Andrews was placed in first place, after only a small drop in student satisfaction during the pandemic.

Source: news.sky.com

A prominent South Carolina attorney has been arrested and charged with conspiring to have himself shot dead so his son could collect a $10 million insurance payout, a state police agency said on Thursday. Alex Murdaugh, who survived the Sept. 4 shooting, has admitted to plotting with Curtis Edward Smith, 61, to cause his own death, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) affidavit.

Source: reuters.com

The campaign to become Japan's next prime minister kicks off on Friday, with four candidates vying for leadership of the ruling party in an unusually close race. The candidates include two women hoping to lead a country that has never had a female prime minister, though both are considered long shots.

Source: france24.com

Three Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth after completing the country's longest crewed space mission. They spent 90 days at the Tianhe module on China's space station, some 380km (240 miles) above Earth. The three men had on Thursday boarded the Shenzhou-12 crewed spacecraft and undocked from the space station.

Source: bbc.com

France remains a “vital partner” to the United States on many issues, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, as he sought to allay Paris’s anger at a security partnership between the US, the United Kingdom and Australia that did not include the European Union country. At a joint news conference with top US and Australian officials on Thursday, Blinken said the US is looking to “find every opportunity” to deepen cooperation with France, including in the Indo-Pacific region.

Source: aljazeera.com

Discovery made by a local girl comes decades after the bottle was put into the sea by հigh school students as part of an experiment to monitor ocean currents. In all, 750 bottles were placed into the ocean near Tokyo’s Miyakejima Island in 1984 and 1985.

Source: theguardian.com

The father of a seven-year-old girl whose hair was cut by a teacher without parental permission is suing the school district and two staff members for $1m. Jimmy Hoffmeyer's lawsuit says the constitutional rights of his mixed-race daughter have been violated. He has pulled his daughter out of the school. An investigation by the school district concluded in July that while the teacher had broken school policy she had not acted with racial bias.

Source: bbc.com

The head of the Islamic State group in the Sahara has been killed by French troops, President Emmanuel Macron has said. Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi formed Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in 2015. The group is blamed for most attacks in the region, including the targeted killing of French aid workers in 2020.

Source: bbc.com

Six fragments of the marble statue, that stood 8ft tall, have been found on the site of  Alabanda, an ancient city in Turkey's western Aydin province. They include part of the Roman emperor's head and body, found in the parliament building. Experts believe the sculpture was brought to Alabanda in 120 AD in honor of a visit by Hadrian. When completed the statue will be displayed at the Aydın Archaeology Museum.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

The city of Paris is unveiling a monumental artwork built around an actual monument: the Arc de Triomphe completely wrapped in silver and blue fabric. The installation by late artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who conceived of the project in 1961, will open on Saturday. Visits will take place for nearly almost three weeks. At weekends, the Arc de Triomphe’s traffic-heavy roundabout will be entirely pedestrianized. Visitors to the famous Napoleonic arch, which dominates the Champs-Elysees Avenue, will not only be able to see the gleaming fabric, but also touch it too — as the artists had intended.

Source: apnews.com

Elton John has delayed his European "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour until 2023 due to hip problems. The 74-year-old British singer said he had been advised to have an operation as soon as possible. "At the end of my summer break I fell awkwardly on a hard surface and have been in considerable pain and discomfort in my hip ever since," John said in a statement on Twitter.

Source: reuters.com

The UK, US and Australia have announced a historic security pact in the Asia-Pacific, in what's seen as an effort to counter China. It will let Australia build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, using technology provided by the US. The Aukus pact, which will also cover AI and other technologies, is one of the countries' biggest defence partnerships in decades, analysts say. China has condemned the agreement as "extremely irresponsible".

Source: bbc.com

A SpaceX rocket ship blasted off from Florida on Wednesday carrying a billionaire e-commerce executive and three less-wealthy private citizens he chose to join him in the first all-civilian crew ever launched into Earth orbit. A SpaceX webcast of the launch showed Isaacman, 38, and his crewmates – Sian Proctor, 51, Hayley Arceneaux, 29, and Chris Sembroski, 42 – strapped into the pressurized cabin of their gleaming white SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Resilience, wearing their helmeted black-and-white flight suits.

Source: france24.com

The Parc des Princes chief says the striker has a "deep relationship" with the French club and won't be departing for free next summer. Leonardo is not concerned about Kylian Mbappe's future amid ongoing rumours linking him with Real Madrid, with the Paris Saint-Germain sporting director insisting "I don't see him leaving at the end of this season".

Source: goal.com

Iranian musician Mehdi Rajabian faces prison for making music. In fact, he has already spent two years locked up - including a spell in solitary confinement and a hunger strike - for releasing songs the Iranian authorities did not agree with. But he is undeterred. "I will not step back and I will not censor myself," he tells BBC News. And so, he has been working undercover from the basement of his home in Sari, northern Iran, to create a new album.

Source: bbc.com