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Rock band will still tour the UK, Europe and US over the next year but say decision to ‘fall dormant’ feels ‘liberating’

The British rock band Enter Shikari have announced they will go on hiatus at the end of 2027, a decision that may result in the band’s “extinction”.

The St Albans band, who formed in 1999 as Hybryd, are due to tour the UK in November, Europe and the US next year, and said they hoped to play some of their favourite places “one last time”.

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Crown prosecutors are seeking five years in prison for a Toronto man convicted in a fatal crash after driving 156 km/h in a residential neighbourhood.

Montreal hospital isolates patient exhibiting Ebola symptoms  CBC

Montreal hospital isolates patient exhibiting Ebola symptoms  CBC

Amid the ongoing investigation into the deaths of two Ole Miss students, representatives of the kratom industry are speaking out about how the product may have been mischaracterized.

Court documents show that Aidan Hamilton, 18, and Robert Strang, 20, were discovered dead on Sept. 21 at separate locations.

Initial reports stated that products described as "packaged kratom" or "synthetic kratom" were found near both students. 

In a Sept. 30 statement, however, investigators said only that "packaging associated with kratom-related products" had been recovered at both locations.

WHAT IS KRATOM? RISKS OF POPULAR SUBSTANCE REVEALED AFTER COLLEGE STUDENTS' DEATHS

"During the investigations, packaging associated with kratom-related products was discovered at both locations," Lafayette County Metro Narcotics, a department in the sheriff's office, said in the statement Wednesday.

Toxicology results from the medical examiner are still pending.

Packaging found near both students bears the name Modus, according to court documents. The affidavit describes the tablets as Smax Pseudo-DHM, and lists pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15(DHM) among the ingredients on the pack found near Hamilton.

Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy at the American Kratom Association in Virginia, spoke with Fox News Digital Thursday about the initial reports of packaged kratom at the two locations where the students were discovered.

OLE MISS NAMES STUDENTS FOUND DEAD AS OFFICIAL ADDRESSES POTENTIAL FOR FOUL PLAY

"We were deeply concerned with that characterization because it is highly unlikely, if not statistically improbable, that a natural kratom leaf product would be the cause of two deaths independently, let alone one," he said.

After attempting to contact the Oxford Police Department, Haddow said the association held a news conference in Oxford asking for clarification on why officials would have disclosed a packaged kratom product.

The clarification showed that the products recovered were "chemically manipulated opioids, not kratom," Haddow added.

"We are grateful for the clarification because what they have told us and disclosed is that these, in fact, were highly synthetic and importantly controlled substances under the Federal Controlled Substances Act," he said.

HEAVY DRINKING SURGES AMONG AMERICANS IN ONE AGE GROUP AS OTHER GENERATIONS CUT BACK

"Those products never should have been on the market in the first place in those locations."

The Mississippi Kratom Consumer Protection Act (KCPA) is a state law that regulates the sale of kratom rather than banning it.

The law establishes standards for who may sell kratom, which products are permitted and how they must be labeled, while prohibiting certain adulterated or high-potency products.

"Why were they not enforcing it?" Haddow questioned.

According to Haddow, natural kratom leaves have been used for centuries in Southeast Asia. He argued there have been no published reports of deaths linked to traditional leaf use in the region, although medical literature does describe some adverse effects associated with long-term use.

Haddow said he believes kratom first spread in the U.S. after the Vietnam War, when returning soldiers and Southeast Asian immigrants brought it back from the region. However, researchers note that this origin story remains unsubstantiated in the published literature.

"And then these amateur chemists got involved and started tinkering with the alkaloids in the natural plant and started to adulterate them, and that appropriately got kratom on the radar of both the DEA and the FDA," he said.

In 2012, the FDA issued an import alert on kratom products, and the DEA sought to temporarily classify kratom's primary alkaloids as Schedule I substances in 2016 before withdrawing the proposal following public comment.

More recently, the agencies have raised concerns about concentrated and chemically modified kratom products, including those containing high levels of 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH).

"What these bad actors have done is completely alter the composition of the natural kratom plant," Haddow said.

"They rearranged the molecules. They've chemically synthesized them with high-concentration chlorine and baking soda and other nefarious production methods so that they deliver what is in fact a signature opioid to consumers in the United States."

The association’s focus now is on banning synthetic products and protecting the natural leaf, Haddow said.

"It is improper for any government agency across the country to be blaming natural leaf kratom for any adverse event that is properly attributable to a synthetic opioid," he added, expressing his viewpoint.

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"If we were to take coffee and extract caffeine from it and then highly concentrate it to a level in which it is fatal and someone ingested it and died, we wouldn't blame coffee. We would blame the bad actor that took and extracted that caffeine, because caffeine is in its natural form and coffee is not dangerous. The same is true for natural kratom."

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Haddow said 7-OH products — including pseudoindoxyl and compounds known as MGM-15 and MGM-16 — should not be considered kratom.

"[They] are synthetic opioids, all of which should be enforced by both the federal and local law enforcement agencies," he said.

"We advocate strongly for proper clarification of these dangerous products as opposed to natural kratom, which is literally helping people with their health and wellness and saving lives."

Haddow cited an NIH-led study that is moving forward to evaluate whether purified mitragynine, the main alkaloid in the kratom plant, could help treat opioid use disorder.

Haddow said the association supports state regulations that require testing, labeling and age restrictions rather than outright bans.

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"Make sure the product formulations are safe, make sure the products are labeled correctly and make sure they're age-restricted," he urged. "Twenty-one and up should be the only people who have access to these products.

"We need to regulate them, and as we represent consumers, we're going to fight for that."

The FDA maintains that kratom has not been approved for any medical use and has warned of some risks, including dependence, contamination and adverse events, while researchers continue to study both the plant and its individual compounds.

Wyndham’s theatre, London
Grant brings shock-haired vigour as a vain novelist forced to welcome his boho children’s surprise guests in comedy of clipped social embarrassment

Hay Fever, now one of Noël Coward’s best-known and most-performed works, hasn’t always been a smash hit. British critics who found its West End debut in 1925 amusing enough nevertheless noted its lack of plot, and the first Broadway production was a flop. A critic for Vogue called it “funny in places”, which sounds like the kind of stinging putdown you’d expect from the playwright’s own hand.

A century of performances have proved the play’s lasting power, but its comic effect has always lain less in the words as written than their delivery – it is, after all, about a family that is “artificial to the point of lunacy”. At their centre is diva Judith Bliss, who has retired from the stage to take up the role of country hostess. When she, her husband and their self-consciously bohemian children Sorel and Simon all invite surprise guests for the weekend, the unfortunate attendees find themselves embroiled in a self-serving drama of exquisite embarrassment.

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After five years of work, 5,750 panels of toughened glass will help keep hundred of plants safe from Scottish winters – but more work needs to be done

In the early autumn sunlight, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s extensive plant collection appears safe in their glass enclosures. But danger lurks from above for the tropical ferns, cycads and rare alpine heathers.

Soon the September sunshine will give way to the storms and gales of the Scottish winter, which can bring hundreds of glass panels crashing to the greenhouse floor on the windiest days. Nobody is allowed inside when the wind is above 30mph.

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1. Trump's trade rep sounds pessimistic about deal with Canada, saying issues are 'quite difficult to resolve'  CBC
2. ‘They were very bad’: Trump says Canada is being ‘taught a little lesson’ as trade war continues  CTV News
3. Trump Insists Canada Has 'Big Unemployment.' Here's What the Data Says  Time Magazine
4. Trump expects Canada to cave in trade war as Stelco cites tariffs for layoffs  The Globe and Mail
5. Trump Calls Canada One of World’s ‘Worst Countries’ as Trade War Escalates  Newsweek

1. Trump's trade rep sounds pessimistic about deal with Canada, saying issues are 'quite difficult to resolve'  CBC
2. ‘They were very bad’: Trump says Canada is being ‘taught a little lesson’ as trade war continues  CTV News
3. Trump Insists Canada Has 'Big Unemployment.' Here's What the Data Says  Time Magazine
4. Trump expects Canada to cave in trade war as Stelco cites tariffs for layoffs  The Globe and Mail
5. Trump Calls Canada One of World’s ‘Worst Countries’ as Trade War Escalates  Newsweek

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced plans to combat antisemitism on Tuesday afternoon despite leaving out a definition for what separates it from other forms of racial or religious prejudice.

He also did not formally recognize the existence of Israel as he unveiled plans to create the Interagency Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.

The plan’s announcement puts renewed scrutiny on Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, as he looks to undercut allegations that he lacks support for the Jewish community amid a rising number of hate crimes against the Jewish community.

ANTISEMITIC VIOLENCE REACHES DEADLIEST LEVEL SINCE 1994, NEW GLOBAL REPORT FINDS

"My administration has a responsibility to ensure New York City remains a place where Jewish New Yorkers can live their lives peacefully and safely — where they can walk down the street, enter their houses of worship and build their lives knowing that this city will stand with them," Mamdani said in a strategy document.

"But too many Jewish New Yorkers have told me that they are no longer certain that promise can be taken for granted."

Antisemitic acts make up the greatest slice of the city’s tracking for hate crimes in 2026, accounting for roughly 9% of the picture, according to NYPD reporting. In the first eight months of 2026, the city has recorded a hate crime uptick of 16% over last year’s levels.

Recorded hate crimes in the "homosexual" category, for instance, make up 29 incidents and those against Muslims make up another 21. Hate crimes against Jews have reached 181.

131 of those are felony offenses.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC JOINS GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST ANTISEMITISM WITH LANDMARK MOVE

The strategy document, which lays out a number of policy proposals, notes the numerous "useful" definitions for antisemitism that already exist but also stipulates that the Mamdani administration would not adopt any of them.

"New York City can and will leverage all of the tools at its disposal to combat antisemitism effectively without needing to adopt a definition for this specific form of hate," the framework states.

"Federal hate crimes statutes — which criminalize conduct motivated by bias against protected characteristics, such as race, national origin and religion — do not adopt a standalone definition of discrimination," it adds.

In practical terms, the proposal outlines a substantial increase in its funding to combat hate crimes, a jump from $3 million to $29 million annually. It further creates cooperation pathways between the NYPD, the Office for Prevention of Hate Crimes and the Commission on Human Rights, among other agencies.

It also designates $2 million for the Queens Holocaust memorial and $2.5 million for the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn.

Mamdani framed the proposal as the beginning of larger efforts to ensure the safety of the Jewish community.

"We will fight antisemitism with urgency and resolve. And we will do so in relentless solidarity with the many communities who also know what it means to be targeted, marginalized or made to question their safety."

"This Strategy is neither the beginning nor the end of this work. But it is an important milestone: a clear commitment from New York City government and a roadmap for the meaningful work ahead."

However, the plan ignited backlash from Jewish New Yorkers.

"I sat with the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism in July and told them what Jewish teachers and families need: a definition of the hate, an honest reckoning with anti-Zionism, and real security for synagogues and schools. What the mayor announced today does none of that," Moshe Spern, the president of United Jewish Teachers, told the New York Post. 

"Quoting the Talmud while refusing to name Zionism, and putting $1 million in security across every house of worship in New York City, is not a strategy. It is a disappointment."

ISRAELI MEDICS TRAIN US SYNAGOGUES HOW TO RESPOND TO ATTACKS, AS HIGH HOLIDAYS APPROACH

Moshe Davis, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, gave Mamdani some credit for using some of his proposals, but said "it seems to make a conscious effort to erase the connection between the violence against Jews we are seeing in our city and the anti-Israel propaganda clearly fueling it," according to the New York Post.

"A report on antisemitism that ignores what is driving much of the hate and violence against Jews is tone-deaf and dangerous," he continued.

Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

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RCMP Supt. Matt Johnson says criminal actions online have real-world consequences, regardless of whether they're made behind a screen.

Dr. Shota Musaev spoke with ABC News about how he saved the pilot of the FlyDubai flight who was attacked by his co-pilot inside the cockpit.

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NDP Premier Wab Kinew took a dig at the Progressive Conservatives’ leadership change while facing off with Obby Khan’s short-term replacement for the first time in question period Thursday. It […]

Inmates who were released early from prisons in England and Wales are pictured on several of Friday's front pages.

Virginia State University (VSU) is facing a federal lawsuit from two Christian student organizations that say the school stripped them of their official campus status and placed them under the direct authority of a university-appointed minister.

"Higher education has really broke from its long-standing desire to promote intellectual diversity and to actually seek truth, and, instead, they are essentially telling students that any disagreement, that certain speech is violence and that hearing difference of opinions on important topics is actually not encouraged. It's actually discouraged," Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer told Fox News Digital.

"I think that higher education is really failing in its primary role, which is to educate the next generation … how to deal with living in a pluralistic society with people who have different opinions."

30% OF COLLEGE STUDENTS SAY VIOLENCE ACCEPTABLE WAY TO STOP SPEAKERS ON CAMPUSES, SURVEY FINDS

Attorneys with ADF filed the lawsuit on behalf of campus chapters for Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship. The lawsuit challenges VSU’s updated Campus Ministries Policy, which plaintiffs argue violates the First Amendment by forcing Christian student groups under university control while granting exemptions to non-Christian religious groups.

According to the policy, all Christian student-led ministries must operate under the "governance and influence" of VSU Campus Minister Thomas Wynn and an advisory board made up of faculty and university personnel. Additionally, the rule bans student ministries from affiliating with their national parent organizations.

Langhofer told Fox News Digital the policy unconstitutionally penalizes Christian students for their religious beliefs.

"The message that it would send is that the First Amendment means what it says: that you can't treat secular groups better than religious groups," Langhofer said. "You can't treat one religious group worse than another religious group, regardless of your motives. 

"It doesn't matter whether your motives are unity or things like that. You can't have one single campus pastor on campus that is able to control all Christian groups and then exclude the Muslim group and allow them to receive all of the benefits."

GOP LAWMAKERS URGE SUPREME COURT TO STRENGTHEN FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTIONS FOR STREET PREACHERS

Non-Christian and Muslim student organizations remain exempt from the mandate, according to the legal filing.

The lawsuit alleged that the policy targets Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship, both local chapters of national organizations that host Bible studies, leadership training and spiritual development events for students on and off campus.

Although both groups remain listed on VSU’s official website, ADF representatives noted that the online directory does not reflect their current operational status on campus. The student organizations are seeking a court order restoring their status as fully recognized registered student organizations (RSOs).

Langhofer pointed to "theological differences" between the campus pastor and the student organizations as a core issue created by the university's mandate.

"I don't know whether that's the fruit of this or not," Langhofer said regarding the policy's origins. "What it ultimately comes down to is an attempt to control what these groups are doing by the university, rather than allowing these groups to continue to operate in the same fashion as they've operated for a long time."

VERMONT PAYS $566K IN DAMAGES, LEGAL FEES TO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL IT BANNED FROM ALL SPORTS COMPETITIONS FOR YEARS

He emphasized that decades of legal precedent prohibit public universities from targeting groups based on religious viewpoints.

"The Supreme Court has held for a very long time that all student groups on campus must be treated equally, and you can't single some out simply because of what they believe," Langhofer told Fox News Digital.

Virginia State University did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.