Riyadh took Houthi fire for a third straight night while Saudi officials try to work out how the missiles got through; Kyiv says Moscow has answered President Trump’s “energy ceasefire” with more strikes; and Britain pinned last month’s RAF Fairford scare on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Ten stories as of Monday evening, October 12.
1. Riyadh / Saudi Arabia. Explosions shook the Saudi capital again Monday night, and the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh and two more aimed at Khamis Mushait in the southwest; the Houthis said their target was King Khalid International Airport, Al Jazeera reported. The airport, closed since Saturday’s strike that killed 13, is expected to stay shut until this Saturday. Saudi authorities have opened an investigation into why the kingdom’s air defences failed; an initial inquiry found the Houthis sent drones first to clear a path for a mix of cruise and ballistic missiles that flew more than 1,000 km, two regional officials told the AP. Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told an energy congress in Riyadh, “Our response must be equally serious,” and Qatar Airways suspended flights to Riyadh and Dammam, BBC News reported. Asked what he’d do, President Trump said, “The Houthis are misbehaving very badly. No good,” without signalling U.S. action; a Houthi official warned of a “swift and painful response” against U.S. interests if Washington joins in.
2. Kyiv / Ukraine and Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has hit six Ukrainian energy facilities since Trump announced the energy truce Sunday, injuring 33 people, and calls it proof Moscow is “unwilling to accept an energy ceasefire,” BBC News reported. Ukrenergo reported new power cuts in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine doesn’t deserve the “respite” a ceasefire would bring. The Kremlin’s only official word was Dmitry Peskov’s “Contacts are continuing,” while pro-Kremlin media called the truce “a one-way deal that benefits us,” BBC News reported. Trump said both sides agreed “because I said you agree.” Monday evening a Shahed drone hit a high-rise in Kyiv; Zelenskyy said two people were killed and nine hurt, after Mayor Vitali Klitschko had first reported one dead and 11 injured.
3. London / United Kingdom and Iran. Prime Minister Andy Burnham told MPs the suspected plot at RAF Fairford, the U.S.-used base in Gloucestershire, was “almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” and Britain sanctioned two Iranians: Ruhollah Bazghandi, head of IRGC counterespionage, and Shahram Ali Reza Tamarzadeh Jakki, described as a facilitator for the Zindashti criminal network, Al Jazeera reported. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband summoned Iran’s ambassador, who said Tehran wasn’t involved and would cooperate. Seven men have been arrested and bailed over the September 27 incident and none has been charged; the UK and 28 other countries, including the U.S., issued a joint statement condemning Iranian “lethal plotting, arson, sabotage,” BBC News reported.
4. Warsaw / Poland and Germany. Two Turkish citizens have been detained in Germany over a fire last month at a Starlink station in Poland’s Masovia region, and Warsaw says they’ll face sabotage charges for acting on the orders of a foreign intelligence service, Al Jazeera reported. “We have no doubt that Russian services are behind this act of sabotage,” said Special Services Minister Tomasz Siemoniak; Poland pays for Ukraine’s Starlink service. At the Warsaw Security Forum the same day, NATO’s top commander, U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, said any attack on an ally would prove “utterly futile” and NATO would hit “anything and everything” that supports an attacking force, per Al Jazeera.
5. Bangkok / Thailand, and Australia. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook, released at the Bangkok annual meetings, warns the global economy “could soon test the limits of resilience” as emergency oil stocks run low and budgets stretch thin, The Guardian reported. It nudged 2026 global growth up to 3.1% from 3.0%, left 2027 at 3.4%, and sees global inflation at 4.7% this year and 4.1% next. A downside scenario, with the war dragging through June 2027 and Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb largely shut, has oil at $130 a barrel; economists told Guardian Australia that could add about 30 cents a litre to Australian petrol.
6. Adwa / Ethiopia. Ethiopian federal troops and an allied militia entered the Tigray town of Adwa, about 40 km from the Eritrean border, on Sunday without a fight after TPLF fighters pulled out, residents said, Al Jazeera reported. It follows the capture of Adigrat and last week’s fall of Mekelle, where Ethiopian Airlines flights resumed Sunday for the first time since September 23. One resident told AFP government offices and Adwa Hospital were looted overnight. Eritrea, accused by Addis Ababa of backing the rebels, cut diplomatic ties last week.
7. Goma / DR Congo. Former President Joseph Kabila will lead a new political-military movement with the Rwanda-backed M23, which has held Goma since January 2025, the two sides announced at a joint news conference at his Goma residence, France 24 reported, citing AFP. Kabila, who ruled from 2001 to 2019, was sentenced to death in absentia a year ago for “complicity” with M23. The move lands as President Félix Tshisekedi’s camp floats constitutional changes ahead of the end of his final term in 2028.
8. Washington / United States. Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home in the Washington area under a court-approved warrant as part of “an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” the Justice Department said, BBC News reported. Omar called it political intimidation: “I will not be silenced.” Trump said he had “nothing to do” with it and called her “a terrible person.” Fox News reported the probe involves immigration paperwork her late father filed when she was a child. House Democratic leaders called the raid “deeply disturbing,” coming less than 30 days before the midterms, The Guardian reported.
9. Jalisco, Guerrero and Baja California / Mexico. Simon is down to 100 mph, a Category 2, about 80 miles west of Cabo Corrientes and 205 miles south of Mazatlán at 5 p.m. MST, creeping west-northwest at 3 mph and expected to turn northwest tonight, with flooding rains still hitting the coast, the National Hurricane Center said. At least two people are dead: a 71-year-old man killed by a collapsing wall near Chilpancingo, Guerrero, during Simon, and a young girl in Baja California from what was Hurricane Rachel, with 10 missing there, Al Jazeera reported. Forecasters say Simon could make landfall Thursday or Friday.
10. La Paz and Santa Cruz / Bolivia. Bolivia’s acting attorney general, José Armando Urioste, opened a preliminary investigation into former President Evo Morales and his vice president Álvaro García Linera over a 2009 police raid on a Santa Cruz hotel that killed three Europeans and left two others reporting torture, The Guardian reported. The alleged crimes include murder, torture and unlawful detention. Morales, who called the men “mercenaries” at the time, is already in hiding from two arrest warrants; neither he nor García Linera has commented.
Coming Up
Confirmed dates on The Watch and beyond: October 13, Pope Leo XIV checks into Rome’s Gemelli hospital for lung-nodule surgery, with audiences cancelled until October 20, Al Jazeera reported. Through October 18, the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, with G20 finance ministers there October 15. October 15–16, the European Council in Brussels. October 17, the earliest Riyadh’s King Khalid airport is expected to reopen. October 19, Alberta’s referendum on whether to move toward a binding independence vote.
Sources: Al Jazeera; BBC News; AP; The Guardian; Guardian Australia; France 24; U.S. National Hurricane Center.
