Journal Of Occurrences

World News

Daily Occurrences both Foreign and Domestic
You are here: Home / Archives for Asia

Asia

Saudi Arabia Keeps Riyadh’s Main Airport Shut After a Second Deadly Strike as Its Energy Minister Vows a ‘Serious’ Response to the Houthis: October 12, 2026

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia extended the suspension of all flights at King Khalid International Airport on Monday after a second deadly strike in two days, and its energy minister promised a “serious” response to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, BBC News and The Guardian reported.

“The events of recent weeks are serious. Our response must be equally serious,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh, which the kingdom pressed ahead with despite the attacks. “Fear has no place in the Saudi lexicon,” he said, according to The Guardian.

A projectile struck a terminal at the airport on Sunday, killing one person, a Pakistani man, and injuring 11, according to Saudi authorities. That came a day after a Houthi missile hit another terminal, killing 13 people and injuring more than 300. The aviation authority said the airport would stay closed while its safety was verified, and Saudi Arabia’s military spokesperson said further missile and drone threats had been detected. King Fahd International Airport in Dammam also remains closed, and more than 150 flights were cancelled at Jeddah’s airport on Sunday, Al Jazeera reported, citing Flightradar24.

The Houthis said they were retaliating for “brutal Saudi aggression” against areas they control in western Yemen, the BBC said. The Houthi-run health ministry said a Saudi air strike on a home in Sanaa killed a child and injured six people on Sunday. The Guardian reported that an urgent review is under way into how Houthi missiles keep getting through stretched Saudi air defenses, and that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has not been seen in public since Tuesday of last week.

Australia and New Zealand on Monday joined the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan in warning citizens about travel to the kingdom, Al Jazeera reported. Inside Yemen, as many as 60 fighters from both sides died in fighting around Taiz on Sunday, and Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Sunday about Iran acting as a mediator with the Houthis. The U.N. Security Council is expected on Tuesday to debate a resolution calling the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization, The Guardian said.

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian, Al Jazeera

—

World Brief, Evening: October 11, 2026

Riyadh’s main airport was hit again a day after the deadliest strike on Saudi soil in years; President Trump’s “energy ceasefire” for Ukraine had no word from Moscow and no letup in Russian drones; and Hurricane Simon, now a Category 3, is grinding up Mexico’s Pacific coast. Ten stories as of Sunday evening, October 11.

1. Riyadh and Dammam / Saudi Arabia. A projectile hit King Khalid International Airport again on Sunday afternoon, setting fire to Passenger Hall No. 4, killing one person, a Pakistani resident, and injuring 11, Saudi officials said, BBC News reported. Air defences intercepted a cruise missile near the airport. Saturday’s toll rose to 13 after the Indian embassy said an Indian man had died of his injuries. Later Sunday, Saudi authorities confirmed King Fahd International Airport in Dammam had also been attacked, The Guardian reported. The Houthis claimed “four qualitative operations” in 24 hours with ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, including two Saudi Aramco facilities, DW reported, and warned that every Saudi airport except those in Mecca and Medina is a potential target. President Trump said the U.S. would “make a decision” on striking the Houthis and “move very quickly,” and the FAA told U.S. airlines to exercise caution on Saudi flights, Reuters reported. Houthi-run Al Masirah TV says Saudi jets struck Sanaa’s airport; Saudi Arabia hasn’t confirmed that.

2. Kyiv, Kharkiv and Washington / Ukraine, Russia and United States. Hours after President Trump posted that an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE” was “effective immediately,” the Kremlin still hadn’t said a word, BBC News reported. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “ready not to strike at Russian energy” if Russia does the same, then said a Russian drone hit a power plant in Kyiv, causing outages, followed by strikes on energy sites in the Kharkiv region. “All of this happened after the president of the United States made his statement,” he said. Russian attacks killed six people in two Ukrainian cities, Reuters reported. Zelenskyy also told ABC News he would organise elections if Vladimir Putin agreed to a “total” 60-day ceasefire, and the Financial Times reported that Washington is threatening the weapons-procurement system that supplies Kyiv to make it stop deep strikes on Russian refineries, per The Guardian. At home, a bipartisan group of senators including Republicans Thom Tillis, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski wrote that “the Administration must immediately reverse course” on the Russian diesel deal, Al Jazeera reported.

3. Tehran / Iran and the Gulf. Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, said Washington has accepted some of Tehran’s seven conditions for a deal to end the war but called the U.S. reply “inadequate,” Al Jazeera reported; Reuters described it as Iran calling the U.S. response to its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz “insufficient.” Separately, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi phoned Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan and offered to help start talks between Riyadh and Yemen’s Houthis, saying the region’s crises have no military solution, according to Al Jazeera, citing the Saudi state news agency.

4. River Nile state / Sudan–Egypt border. Air strikes on Saturday killed at least 72 artisanal gold miners at a remote mining area near the border with Egypt, the Khartoum-based rights group Emergency Lawyers said, BBC News reported. The group accused Egypt’s air force and said the attacks “may constitute war crimes”; neither Cairo nor Sudan’s de facto authorities have commented. The site lies south of the disputed Halayeb triangle, and one survivor told AFP thousands of people were working there when it was hit, DW reported. The toll is provisional; the Associated Press put it at at least 13, and the Sudan Doctors Network expects it to rise.

5. Jalisco and Colima / Mexico. Simon weakened a notch to a Category 3 with 125 mph winds but is still a major hurricane, its center about 50 miles south of Cabo Corrientes and 110 miles west-northwest of Manzanillo at 6 p.m. CST, crawling northwest at 5 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. It’s expected to hug the coast tonight, edge offshore Monday and turn back toward Mexico on Wednesday; isolated storm totals of 30 inches of rain are possible in Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco, with life-threatening flooding and mudslides. President Claudia Sheinbaum urged coastal residents of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Michoacán to stay sheltered, and 28 municipalities are under the highest cyclone alert, Al Jazeera reported.

6. London / United Kingdom. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said it is “clear” Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum, the first time a British prime minister has said so, BBC News reported. He told The Rest Is Politics podcast that he asked about it on arriving in Downing Street and “I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was,” though he gave no details. He warned that similar disinformation is aimed at Germany and France. Pro-Brexit group Britain Unbound called it a “crude attempt to undermine the legitimacy” of the vote. Russia has long denied meddling in Western elections, Al Jazeera noted.

7. Pyongyang / North Korea and South Korea. North Korea fired several ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area toward the sea off its east coast at about 9:20 a.m. Monday local time (5:20 p.m. Sunday Pacific), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, and Japan’s defence ministry confirmed at least one, France 24 reported. Tension has been building since September 21, when landmines wounded three South Korean soldiers in the DMZ; a joint Seoul–UN investigation concluded the North planted them, which Pyongyang denies.

8. Lower Silesia / Poland. Police arrested a Polish man suspected of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, BBC News reported, updating this morning’s report of a possible plot. “The man threatening an attack has been detained,” Tusk wrote, thanking police for “swift and decisive action.” The plan surfaced in an email forwarded to police by the State Protection Service, and officials said there was “a strong likelihood that these threats could actually be carried out,” per The Guardian.

9. São Paulo / Brazil. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva led a huge red-clad rally on Paulista Avenue, pushing a bill to give workers two paid days off a week instead of one and cut the maximum working week from 44 to 40 hours, RFI reported, citing AFP. The Senate is due to vote on it Wednesday. Flávio Bolsonaro, favoured in polls for the October 25 runoff, called the proposal “opportunistic.”

10. Vanikoro / Solomon Islands. All 73 passengers and crew of the drifting ferry MV Awka are safe on land. The police patrol boat Gizo reached the ferry about 11 p.m. Sunday local time and towed it, and the MV Helper 1 took everyone ashore at Vanikoro early Monday, the Temotu provincial government said, RNZ reported. “We are relieved,” Temotu Premier Stanley Tehi said.

Coming Up

Confirmed dates on The Watch: October 12, the Nobel economics prize, the last of this year’s Nobels. October 12–18, 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 19, Alberta’s referendum on whether to move toward a binding independence vote.

Sources: BBC News; The Guardian; DW; Al Jazeera; Reuters; Financial Times; France 24/AFP; RFI/AFP; RNZ; U.S. National Hurricane Center.

World Brief: October 11, 2026

Donald Trump announced a Russia–Ukraine “energy ceasefire” that Kyiv says it learned about from the announcement; Riyadh’s airport was hit again a day after the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in a decade; and the shipping war around Hormuz is heating back up. Ten stories as of Sunday morning, October 11.

1. Kyiv, Moscow and Washington / Ukraine, Russia and United States. “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “Both parties have agreed. … Do not break it!” There was no immediate confirmation from Moscow, DW reported, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Axios: “The ceasefire announcement was news for me. But if Russians agree to an energy ceasefire, Ukraine will agree.” Trump made a similar claim in September that turned out to be untrue, The Guardian noted. Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian drones damaged a Yandex data center in Vladimir, east of Moscow, the third strike on “Russia’s Google” this week; the company said operations there were “completely suspended,” BBC News reported. The backdrop is the week’s row over Trump’s Russian diesel deal and his call on Saturday for Ukraine to “get a new president.”

2. Riyadh / Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition said an “unidentified projectile” struck Terminal 4 at King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, causing a fire, and that air defences intercepted a cruise missile nearby, AFP reported via The Guardian. The airport was already closed after Saturday’s strike killed 12 people, including an American, and injured 309, BBC News reported. Saudi authorities extended the closure and moved Riyadh’s schools online until Thursday, while the Houthis warned airlines, passengers and airport staff to stay away from Saudi airports and said “the worst is yet to come,” The Guardian reported. They exempted Mecca and Medina. Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said Saudi Arabia struck Sanaa’s airport on Sunday afternoon, DW reported. On whether the U.S. joins in, Trump said: “We’re gonna look at it.”

3. Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz / Iran and United States. U.S. Central Command released footage of a fighter jet bombing the stern of a Panama-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman and knocking out its propulsion. CENTCOM said the crew ignored repeated warnings and tried to run the naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports. Since the blockade was reimposed in mid-July, it says, U.S. forces have disabled four commercial vessels, turned back 135 ships and destroyed 10 Iran-linked tankers, Al Jazeera reported. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy said an unnamed supertanker hit a naval mine and caught fire while using an “unauthorised route,” and it warned other tankers of the same fate. UKMTO reported a projectile hitting an outbound tanker on Sunday, and the UAE coastguard rescued 22 crew from a burning tanker. Kpler data cited by CNBC put crude flows through the strait about 40% below normal last week.

4. Obock / Djibouti. At least 139 migrants died and 84 are still missing after a boat headed for Yemen capsized off Djibouti’s coast late Thursday, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said on Sunday, DW reported. That’s up from an earlier count of 109 dead, including 15 children. Reports put the number on board at 305 to 350. About 80 people survived, all of them Ethiopian, and Djiboutian search operations are continuing, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported. “This is a devastating loss of life,” said Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s Djibouti chief. The agency has counted more than 20,000 crossings from Ethiopia into Djibouti since September 10, despite the war in Yemen. More than 900 people died or went missing on the route last year.

5. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa / Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari put the north-western province under emergency rule on Sunday, effectively suspending its government, which is run by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI party, DW reported. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office cited the “provincial government’s deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism.” Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the governor will take charge with an advisory council, initially for six months. A PTI lawmaker said Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and the party’s provincial president were arrested, which officials haven’t confirmed, Al Jazeera reported. It comes a week into a PTI march on Islamabad demanding Khan’s release.

6. Warsaw / Poland. Police received information about a possible plot to attack Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, and security chiefs held an emergency meeting on Sunday. “We take this matter extremely seriously,” said Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesperson for the minister overseeing the intelligence services, adding that officials saw a high probability the threats would have been carried out, The Guardian reported. Radio Zet reported that the tip came to police by email, according to Al Jazeera. Poland was already on edge after three school attacks in Mazovia province in four days, and Tusk has warned of Russian hybrid attacks on NATO’s eastern flank.

7. Vatican City / Holy See. “The doctors found an early, well-localised nodule on my lung,” Pope Leo XIV told pilgrims in St Peter’s Square at Sunday’s Angelus, saying he had agreed to surgery. The Vatican press office said the operation is set for early this coming week at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, and that the 71-year-old should need about a week to recover, BBC News reported. The pope didn’t say whether the nodule is malignant, but he said it was caught “at an early stage,” The Guardian reported.

8. Colima, Jalisco and Michoacán / Mexico. The core of “extremely dangerous” Hurricane Simon was near the coast of west-central Mexico at 9 a.m. CST: a Category 4 with 145 mph winds, 65 miles west-northwest of Manzanillo, moving north-northwest at 7 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. It’s expected to be very near the coast later today and to stay close on Monday. A hurricane warning runs from Punta San Telmo to El Roblito and the Islas Marías. Forecasters expect another 8 to 16 inches of rain, with isolated totals of up to 30 inches in Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco, and warn of “life-threatening flooding and mudslides.” Farther north, the remnants of Rachel are bringing heavy rain to parts of the south-western U.S., and the NHC has issued its last advisory on that storm.

9. Brasília / Brazil. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court gave Meta 48 hours to say whether it cut the reach of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign posts, and to “report, profile by profile, all the measures applied” to his official accounts, AFP reported. Lula’s campaign says Facebook’s and Instagram’s parent company is trying “to interfere in the Brazilian electoral process to the benefit of Flávio Bolsonaro’s candidacy.” Meta’s Brazil office called the claims “simply false” and said many of the technical issues weren’t limited to Brazil or to specific accounts. Lula faces Bolsonaro, the son of the former president, in the October 25 runoff. Bolsonaro finished first in last Sunday’s first round.

10. Nikumaroro / Kiribati. A team from the U.S.-based Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University is due by Monday at Nikumaroro, a remote atoll in Kiribati, to inspect what it thinks could be Amelia Earhart’s plane, BBC News reported. The target is the “Taraia Object,” spotted on the edge of a lagoon in 2020 satellite imagery and since found in aerial photos dating back to 1938. The team is aboard a Kiribati National Shipping Line vessel for the 830-mile trip from the capital. “Finding Amelia Earhart’s Electra aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime,” said expedition lead Richard Pettigrew. Earhart vanished in 1937 while trying to fly around the world.

Coming Up

Confirmed dates on The Watch: October 12, the Nobel economics prize, the last of this year’s Nobels. October 12–18, 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 19, Alberta’s referendum on whether to move toward a binding independence vote.

Sources: BBC News; The Guardian; Al Jazeera; DW; AFP; U.S. Central Command; U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Flash Flood Roars Down Nepal’s Budhi Gandaki River, Sweeping Away Homes and Bridges as Five People Are Reported Missing: October 11, 2026

KATHMANDU, Nepal — A flash flood tore down the Budhi Gandaki River in Nepal’s Gorkha district on Sunday, sweeping away about a dozen houses and several bridges and damaging a hydropower project, as authorities urged villagers downstream to move to higher ground, BBC News and ABC News (Australia) reported.

Two women and three men were out of contact, the national disaster authority said, though there were no immediate reports of deaths. The army said 49 people, including a foreigner, had been rescued, and 18 workers at the hydropower project escaped to safety after their camp was damaged, the authority’s chief, Dharam Raj Uprety, said, according to ABC. A highway bridge linking two districts was also washed away.

Authorities said a dry landslide at Chumnubri village, about 100 kilometers west of Kathmandu, had blocked the river and unleashed the flood. The BBC said the cause was still unclear, with some suggesting a landslide had dammed the river or a tributary and others reporting that locals upstream had seen an ice avalanche. Water levels at one point rose from 2 meters to nearly 8.5 meters within a couple of hours. “Our hydrological station was swept away and we are not getting any data from that location,” government meteorologist Binod Parajuli told the BBC.

“We have asked villagers living along the river banks downstream to evacuate and remain safe,” said Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, Gorkha’s most senior administrator. Alerts were issued for the Gorkha, Tanahun, Chitwan, East Nawalparasi and West Nawalparasi districts, and army and police rescuers were monitoring the river by helicopter.

The flood struck on the first day of Dashain, a major festival in Nepal. The Budhi Gandaki feeds the Trishuli River, where a glacier collapse in August caused a catastrophic flood that killed 1,457 people; Nepal has ended the search for the more than 5,000 people still missing from that disaster, ABC reported.

Sources: BBC News, ABC News (Australia)

—

Pakistan Imposes Emergency and Governor’s Rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sidelining Imran Khan’s Party as Its March on Islamabad Rolls On: October 11, 2026

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s federal government on Sunday imposed a state of emergency and governor’s rule in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, effectively suspending the provincial government run by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, after President Asif Ali Zardari approved the cabinet’s recommendation, Al Jazeera and Dawn reported.

The emergency was invoked under Articles 232 and 234 of the constitution following a meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. His office said ministers had taken note of the “provincial government’s deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism.” Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the provincial governor would take charge with an advisory council, initially for six months, and the federal government named Muhammad Fakhr Alam Irfan as the province’s chief secretary, according to Dawn.

PTI leaders said Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and the party’s provincial president, Junaid Akbar, had been taken into custody, and provincial Information Minister Shafi Jan urged people across the province to gather in the provincial capital, Peshawar, The Express Tribune reported. Police and federal authorities had not officially confirmed the arrests, Pakistani media said.

PTI spokesman Zulfikar Bukhari said the decision would only lead to “further bloodshed, instability and collateral damage,” Reuters reported, according to Al Jazeera, and PTI leader Barrister Gohar called it “an extremely concerning and serious political mistake.” Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said the move was aimed at “establishing peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”

The emergency comes as the PTI presses a march on Islamabad, led by Afridi since Oct. 4, to demand Khan’s release. Khan has been in jail for more than three years but remains widely popular, and the government has blocked main routes into the capital with shipping containers and said it will not let the march enter the city.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Dawn, The Express Tribune

—

Saudi Arabia Keeps Riyadh Airport Shut as Houthis Warn ‘Worse Is Yet to Come’ After Terminal Attack That Killed 12: October 11, 2026

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia extended the closure of King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, a day after an attack on a passenger terminal killed at least 12 people and injured 309, while Yemen’s Houthis warned airlines, travelers and airport workers to stay away from Saudi airports altogether, ABC News (Australia) and BBC News reported.

The closure was extended until at least 9 p.m. local time on Sunday, according to Flightradar24 data cited by ABC. Saudi authorities said schools in the capital would stay online until the end of the week, and the Saudi embassy in Kuwait said it was organizing buses to bring citizens home after their flights were cancelled. Western embassies have told their citizens to keep away from the airport, and several Gulf airlines have cancelled flights.

“We renew our warning to all airlines, experts, employees, workers and travellers against using Saudi airports and airspace, as they are vulnerable to attack and have become a theatre of operations for our forces,” the Houthis said in a post on Sunday, exempting only the airports serving Mecca and Medina. The Houthi-run foreign ministry said further Saudi military action in Yemen would trigger a stronger response: “Unless the Saudi enemy stops its aggression and interference in Yemen, worse is yet to come,” it said in statements carried by Houthi-run Al Masirah television, according to ABC News. The Houthis also reported two air strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Sunday and blamed Saudi Arabia; there was no immediate Saudi comment.

Saturday’s strike was the deadliest attack in the kingdom since May 2015, the BBC said. The Saudi civil aviation authority said the dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, and that some of the injured were in critical condition. The Saudi-led coalition blamed the Houthis and vowed to respond, with spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki calling the attack a “full-fledged war crime.” The Houthis had not commented on Saturday’s strike but claimed attacks on the same airport on Thursday that killed three people.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply shocked,” and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote that “attacks by Iran’s proxies are pushing the region into a spiral of violence.” Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the United Arab Emirates also condemned the attack. President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States was considering joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis. The Houthi-run health ministry says coalition strikes have killed 91 Yemenis and injured 168 in five weeks of renewed fighting.

Sources: ABC News (Australia), BBC News

—

World Brief, Evening: October 10, 2026

A Houthi strike on Riyadh’s main airport killed 12 people and hurt more than 300; President Donald Trump said Ukraine should “get a new president” as the toll from Russia’s glide bombs on Zaporizhzhia rose to 20; and Hurricane Simon is closing on Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 4. Ten stories as of Saturday evening, October 10.

1. Riyadh / Saudi Arabia. The blast at King Khalid International Airport this morning turned out to be the deadliest attack in any Gulf Arab country since the Iran war began. At least 12 people were killed and 309 injured, some critically, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said; the dead were four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the U.S., Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Sudan and the Palestinian territories, Al Jazeera reported. A missile hit the complex housing domestic terminals 3 and 4, and airport operations were suspended. The Saudi-led coalition blamed Yemen’s Houthis, called it a “full-fledged war crime” and vowed to respond; a projectile also fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, BBC News reported. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed an American was among the dead, and asked whether the U.S. would join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, President Trump said: “We may. We’re going to look at it,” the Associated Press reported via NPR. It was the third attack on the airport this week. Across the Red Sea, Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces claim to be retaking ground around the Bab al-Mandab strait, though accounts vary, according to The Guardian.

2. Zaporizhzhia / Ukraine and Washington. The death toll from Russia’s five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia rose to at least 20, including four children, with 32 injured and more people believed to be under the rubble, local officials said, BBC News reported. “The ground floor was hit, and the floors above just collapsed,” acting Mayor Regina Harchenko said. Then the row with Washington got sharper. Responding to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s criticism of his Russian diesel deal, President Trump told reporters outside the White House that “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” and said of Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries: “He’d better damn well stop,” BBC News reported. Ukraine has been under martial law since 2022, so elections are suspended. Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev called Trump’s remarks “iconic and historic.” In Europe, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said “this is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t,” and U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham offered Zelenskyy his “complete solidarity,” The Guardian reported.

3. West-central Mexico and the U.S. Gulf Coast / Mexico and United States. Hurricane Simon was a Category 4 with 150 mph winds about 85 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo at 6 p.m. CST, drifting north at 3 mph, and is still expected to reach west-central Mexico as a major hurricane on Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said; a hurricane warning runs from Punta San Telmo to El Roblito and the Islas Marías. Businesses in Puerto Vallarta boarded up windows, and Jalisco suspended classes in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuations, Al Jazeera reported. Farther north, Tropical Storm Rachel (65 mph) was racing north-northeast at 30 mph about 365 miles south of San Diego, with a tropical storm warning for Baja California and a watch for the Southern California coast (NHC). On the Gulf side, post-tropical Isaias is now blamed for four deaths, two in Florida and two in Alabama, and about 500,000 people were still without power on Saturday evening, BBC News reported. One Escambia County death came from a generator running in a closed garage; “Don’t run any generators inside your home,” Gov. Ron DeSantis warned, per The Guardian.

4. Erie, Pennsylvania / United States. A gunman killed eight people, including a five-year-old, a one-year-old and a woman who was eight months pregnant, at a home in Erie on Friday afternoon before apparently taking his own life, police said, BBC News reported. Two women, a relative by marriage and a family friend, were shot outside after trying to get help from neighbours; all but one of the dead were related. Police Chief Rick Lorah said a motive hasn’t been established but that “mental health is at play here.” “Some scenes stay with you long after you leave them. This is one of those scenes,” he said. The suspect had a history with law enforcement, though its nature is unclear, The Guardian reported.

5. New Delhi / India. By evening, police had detained hundreds of “Cockroach” protesters, along with journalists and lawyers, as a lockdown closed at least 45 metro stations and cancelled more than 240 trains into the capital, ABC News (Australia) reported. The UN human rights office said it was “concerned by reports of mass detentions” and called for those “arbitrarily detained” to be released immediately. The protesters, angry over a voter-roll revision that dropped about 130 million names, are demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and some say they’re coming back. “We will come again tomorrow,” one detained protester told the ABC. Founder Abhijeet Dipke and two senior leaders were detained when their flight from Mumbai landed.

6. Tigray / Ethiopia and Eritrea. Eritrea asked the UN Security Council to “forcefully condemn Ethiopia’s deplorable declaration of war” and take “deterrent measures” under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows anything from sanctions to military action, Al Jazeera reported. A day earlier, Ethiopia told the council that Eritrean troops had pushed up to 60 km into Tigray in an “all-out invasion,” and said it was exercising its right to self-defence. Ethiopia’s army has retaken the regional capital, Mekelle, from TPLF rebels and says it has launched drone strikes on Eritrean troops, DW reported. Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh warned of “huge devastation to the peoples of both countries.”

7. Okinawa / Japan. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu to offer “sincere condolences” and promise full cooperation with the investigation into the killing of 39-year-old Anna Yagi in a hotel in Naha, the State Department said, Al Jazeera reported. Devin Jacob Ballard, a Marine stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, was arrested on October 4 on suspicion of robbery and murder; he denies it. The case set off protests, and U.S. personnel on Okinawa are under a monthlong curfew and alcohol ban while they go through discipline training.

8. North Kivu / DR Congo and Kenya. The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has reached another health zone, Alimbongo in North Kivu, the World Health Organization said, Al Jazeera reported. The Bundibugyo-strain outbreak has now hit 64 health zones in seven provinces, with 8,728 confirmed cases and 4,205 confirmed deaths as of October 6, a case fatality rate of about 48%. Kenya’s first imported case, a Kenyan who travelled by road through Uganda and flew to Nairobi, died on October 5, and a suspected second case in Wajir County tested negative, though monitoring continues.

9. Curitiba / Brazil. Police shot dead a man who broke into a kindergarten in the São Braz neighbourhood of the southern city of Curitiba, held 13 children hostage, spread a flammable liquid around the classroom and held a lighter, officials said, Al Jazeera reported. All 13 children were rescued; at least one was wounded. “Our negotiating teams were in place but saw no alternative but to neutralise him,” a Paraná police spokesperson said. Police said the man, who also carried a knife and what turned out to be a fake gun, suffered from schizophrenia and kept a child on his lap throughout the negotiation.

10. Temotu Province / Solomon Islands. More than 70 passengers have been adrift since Friday after the ferry MV Awka’s engine failed about 100 nautical miles from its destination on a run between the remote islands of Anuta and Vanikoro, ABC News (Australia) reported. Aircraft from Australia and New Caledonia dropped supplies and equipment, including a life raft, and a Panama-registered bulk carrier reached the ferry on Sunday morning local time and began transferring food and water, a passenger said.

Coming Up

Confirmed dates on The Watch: October 12, the Nobel economics prize, the last of this year’s Nobels. October 12–18, the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, with G20 finance ministers there October 15. October 15–16, the European Council in Brussels.

Sources: Al Jazeera; BBC News; The Guardian; Associated Press; NPR; U.S. National Hurricane Center; ABC News (Australia); DW.

World Brief: October 10, 2026

Russia answered Washington’s diesel deal with glide bombs on Zaporizhzhia; three storms are working over North America at once; and New Delhi locked itself down to keep a youth protest off its streets. Ten stories as of Saturday morning, October 10.

1. Zaporizhzhia / Ukraine. Russia dropped five glide bombs on residential buildings in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday morning, killing at least 15 people, including three children, and injuring at least 16, with more people believed trapped under the rubble, officials said, BBC News reported. “Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, a jab at Donald Trump’s Friday deal to buy Russian diesel. Ukraine’s largest private energy provider reported “large-scale power outages” in Kyiv. Europe isn’t following Washington’s lead: “This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, adding that foreign ministers intend on Monday to approve the biggest set of sanctions listings since the war began, and Berlin said it “remains committed” to the sanctions, The Guardian reported.

2. U.S. Gulf Coast and Pacific Mexico / United States and Mexico. Isaias weakened to a post-tropical cyclone on Saturday after coming ashore near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2. Two people were killed by falling trees, one in Escambia County, Florida, and one in Birmingham, Alabama, and more than 868,000 customers were without power across Florida, Alabama and Georgia early Saturday, The Guardian reported. Flash flooding and tornadoes are still possible. On the Pacific side, Hurricane Simon is “a dangerous Category 4” with 150 mph winds, about 115 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo as of 9 a.m. CST, and is expected to be near or just inland of west-central Mexico on Sunday, with 10–20 inches of rain and up to 30 inches in parts of Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco, the National Hurricane Center said. Farther north, Tropical Storm Rachel (60 mph) is due to move onshore in northern Baja California tonight, and a tropical storm watch now covers the Southern California coast from the Mexican border to the San Diego–Orange County line (NHC). It’s one of three storm systems hitting North America this weekend, BBC News noted.

3. New Delhi / India. Police boarded the plane carrying Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party, as it landed in Delhi on Saturday and detained him and other leaders before their march against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, BBC News reported. The capital was in lockdown: the Jantar Mantar protest site was sealed, trains into New Delhi were cancelled, mobile internet was suspended, and metro stations and markets were shut, Al Jazeera reported. More than 6,000 people trying to reach the site were bused away, and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was among those detained, according to The Guardian. The anger is over a voter-roll revision that removed about 130 million names. The Election Commission and the BJP deny any bias, and BJP spokesman Sambit Patra called it a “flop show.”

4. Riyadh / Saudi Arabia. King Khalid International Airport was evacuated on Saturday after a loud blast, two international news agencies reported, and a Reuters eyewitness saw more than a dozen ambulances rushing to the airport, BBC News reported. Saudi authorities have not commented, and the airport told passengers to check with their airlines. There was no immediate Houthi statement, though the Iran-backed group claimed this week’s earlier strikes on the airport, which killed Saudis including a Saudia pilot. Etihad and Qatar Airways have cancelled Riyadh flights, some into Monday, DW reported. This one is still developing.

5. Blue Nile / Sudan. A drone strike by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on a camp for displaced people in the Abu Shandi area near the Ethiopian border killed 41 people on Friday, the rights group Emergency Lawyers said, BBC News reported; eight children are said to be among the dead. The UN humanitarian office said it was “appalled by horrifying reports” and that most casualties appeared to be women and children, in an area that has been “under sustained attack in recent weeks.” The war between the army and the RSF has displaced more than 14 million people since 2023.

6. Ramallah and Gaza / Palestinian territories. President Mahmoud Abbas postponed what would have been the first Palestinian elections in nearly 20 years. A decree folds the legislative vote that had been set for November 28 into a joint presidential and parliamentary election on September 11, 2027, the official Wafa agency said, Al Jazeera reported. The PLO Executive Committee said Israel hadn’t allowed election materials or international observers into Gaza, while Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Abbas of “fooling the international community.” On the first anniversary of the U.S.-backed ceasefire, at least seven people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, and the Health Ministry says 1,481 Palestinians have been killed since the truce took effect, Al Jazeera reported.

7. Taipei / Taiwan. “Our aim in increasing investment in national defence is not to provoke, but to deter war,” President Lai Ching-te said in his National Day address outside the Presidential Office. His government has budgeted a record NT$1.1 trillion (about $34.5 billion) for defence in 2027, more than 3% of GDP, DW reported. Lai welcomed U.S.-China talks but said Beijing must respect “the right of the people of Taiwan to exist,” and he accused China of using military and grey-zone pressure to change the status quo, Focus Taiwan (CNA) reported. A senior U.S. official said “a routine speech is no justification for aggressive or coercive actions.” Saturday marked 115 years since the 1911 revolution.

8. Vatican City / Holy See and United States. On the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Pope Leo XIV posted that capital punishment “is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” Vatican News reported. The American pope didn’t name the case, but the post came hours after Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, called the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the December 3 firing-squad execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan “unacceptable,” saying “it is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.” Back in Washington, Vice President JD Vance said “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” while President Trump said he “absolutely” approved of the plan, BBC News reported.

9. Santiago / Chile. Las Condes, the eastern Santiago district hit by mudslides, has been declared a disaster zone, and more than 1,000 residents have been evacuated, Al Jazeera reported. Thursday’s torrents swept cars through the streets and injured at least six people, including a one-year-old, and President José Antonio Kast declared a state of emergency for the district. Mayor Catalina San Martín said 14.4 cm (5.7 inches) of rain had fallen in recent days, about nine times the October average, and the Mapocho River overflowed, the Associated Press reported via NBC News. The World Meteorological Organization says this El Niño could be among the most intense since 1950.

10. Suva / Fiji. Fiji’s government has told Washington to show its evidence after the U.S. State Department accused Zhao Fugang, director of the Overseas Chinese Service Center in Suva, of “significant corruption,” saying he paid bribes to advance Chinese government, business and criminal interests. Zhao, a prominent local businessman, denied it. “Allegations do not constitute proof of wrongdoing,” the government said on Facebook, insisting any case be handled through Fijian law enforcement, AFP reported via The Manila Times. A 2024 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project had described Zhao as a key point man for Beijing’s interests in Fiji.

Coming Up

Confirmed dates on The Watch: October 12, the Nobel economics prize, the last of this year’s Nobels. October 12–18, the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, with G20 finance ministers there October 15. October 15–16, the European Council in Brussels.

Sources: BBC News; The Guardian; Al Jazeera; DW; U.S. National Hurricane Center; Focus Taiwan (CNA); Vatican News; Associated Press; AFP.

Abbas Cancels November Palestinian Legislative Vote and Sets Joint Presidential and Parliamentary Elections for September 2027: October 10, 2026

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday issued a decree cancelling legislative elections scheduled for Nov. 28 and setting simultaneous presidential and legislative elections for Sept. 11, 2027, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The decree followed a decision by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee and consultations with Palestinian factions, WAFA said. It cited Israeli military attacks, settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, restrictions on movement, Israel’s withholding of Palestinian clearance revenues, and Israeli restrictions on access for election staff and international observers to Gaza and East Jerusalem.

In Gaza, the decree pointed to “exceptional security and humanitarian conditions,” the failure to deploy international stabilization and police forces under U.N. Security Council Resolution 2803, the lack of progress on reconstruction and the incomplete withdrawal of Israeli forces, according to WAFA. It said the delay would also allow a comprehensive national dialogue to strengthen Palestinian unity.

The last Palestinian Legislative Council election, in 2006, was won by Hamas, leading to the rift between the group and Abbas’s Fatah party, The National reported. Abbas, elected in 2005, has overstayed his term by 17 years and rules by decree, the paper said, and faction sources told it the delay was mainly linked to holding a national dialogue in Egypt. An August poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 79 percent of respondents wanted him to resign.

The decree came on the first anniversary of the U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire, which took effect on Oct. 10 last year. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that at least 1,481 Palestinians have been killed since then, and medical sources said Israeli attacks killed at least seven people across Gaza on Saturday, including an 8-year-old girl, Al Jazeera reported.

Sources: WAFA, The National, Reuters (via The Jerusalem Post), Al Jazeera

—

India Detains Cockroach Movement Founder and Hundreds of Protesters as Police Lock Down Delhi Against Election-Chief Rally: October 10, 2026

NEW DELHI — Indian police detained the founder and top leaders of the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party and hundreds of protesters on Saturday as tens of thousands of security personnel sealed off central New Delhi to block a rally demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, BBC News, Al Jazeera and DW reported.

Founder Abhijeet Dipke and fellow leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained on their flight from Mumbai after it landed, the movement said, adding that they had been taken to an undisclosed location and denied access to lawyers. Delhi Police, which had refused permission for the protest at Jantar Mantar, did not comment on the detentions, the BBC said. Before arriving, Dipke said: “If you think you can stop us by threatening us with jail or trying to intimidate us with the fear of imprisonment, you are mistaken.”

The government deployed nearly 30,000 personnel, cancelled trains to New Delhi, closed more than 50 metro stations and imposed an internet shutdown, and several students traveling to the capital were pulled off trains and buses and detained, Al Jazeera reported. “Narendra Modi just made EMERGENCY official,” Dipke wrote on X, invoking Indira Gandhi’s 1975 suspension of civil liberties, according to Al Jazeera. Interim leader Ajinkya Shinde told supporters that “wherever they stop you will become your Jantar Mantar.”

News outlets including Scroll and Newslaundry said their journalists were briefly detained while covering the protest, and the Committee to Protect Journalists urged Delhi Police to release all detained journalists and media workers, DW reported.

The protesters accuse Kumar of favoring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in a nationwide revision of voter rolls that Al Jazeera said has struck 130 million names; the Election Commission says the exercise is routine and removes dead, duplicate or ineligible voters, and it and the BJP deny any bias. The movement grew out of a viral post by Dipke in May after Chief Justice Surya Kant likened some jobless young people to “cockroaches,” and its protests in July forced the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera, DW

—