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World Brief: October 12, 2026

Zelenskyy says it’s “increasingly clear” Moscow wants no part of Trump’s “energy ceasefire,” Riyadh’s main airport stays shut while the war on the ground in Yemen grinds on, and Iran says the oil shuttle out of Hormuz is now a target. Ten stories as of Monday morning, October 12.

1. Warsaw, Kyiv and Kharkiv / Ukraine and Russia. Speaking to the Warsaw Security Forum on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had bombed six energy facilities that day, injuring 33 people, and that “it is becoming increasingly clear that Russia does not want to agree to the energy ceasefire proposed by the US,” The Guardian reported. “If Russia does not agree to an energy ceasefire this winter, we will respond,” he said, adding of Trump’s announcement: “It’s clear that Putin does not read Truth Social.” Europe lined up behind Kyiv. “I have not noted, over the last 48 hours, any energy ceasefire coming from the Russian side,” France’s Emmanuel Macron said, per Al Jazeera, and the EU’s Kaja Kallas said the bloc welcomes the truce “when it holds.” In Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office said Trump’s Russian diesel deal “will provide additional revenue for Russia and help finance its illegal, unjustifiable war,” The Globe and Mail reported, even as Carney thanked Trump for pushing the ceasefire.

2. Riyadh and Taiz / Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Saudi Arabia extended the suspension of all flights at King Khalid International Airport on Monday while it verifies the airport’s safety, and its military said more missile and drone threats had been detected, The Guardian reported. Saturday’s toll is now 13 dead. Inside Yemen, Saudi jets carried out eight strikes around Taiz, the country’s third city, where as many as 60 fighters from both sides died on Sunday; the governor warned a medicine shortage means Taiz will soon run out of emergency surgical and intensive care. The UN Security Council is expected on Tuesday to debate a resolution calling the Houthis a terrorist organisation. Delta, meanwhile, pushed its new Atlanta–Riyadh nonstop back to March 2027, CNBC reported.

3. Strait of Hormuz / Iran and United Arab Emirates. Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei said Sunday night that the U.S.-assisted shuttle moving Gulf crude past Iran’s grip on Hormuz is now an explicit target, Al Jazeera reported. He claimed U.S. Central Command and the UAE military are using smaller vessels to carry oil out to bigger tankers, and that Iran has been hitting five or six of those vessels nightly for weeks. “You are smuggling, but the strait is under Iran’s control, and we manage it,” he said. Rezaei also threatened U.S.-linked cables, data centers and AI facilities in the UAE, and accused Saudi Arabia of helping move the oil, though he stopped short of threatening Riyadh directly.

4. Peshawar / Pakistan. A day after President Asif Ali Zardari imposed emergency rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the government confirmed that suspended Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and some of his cabinet were taken into “preventive custody” at his house in Peshawar, minister Talal Chaudhry told Reuters, via The Guardian. Police told Dawn the assembly speaker was among eight Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders held, and hundreds of party politicians have been detained. Imran Khan’s party calls it a coup and says the emergency is meant to stop his supporters marching on Islamabad to demand his release. The government says the province failed to tackle Islamist militancy.

5. Berlin / Germany. Bärbel Bas resigned on Monday as Germany’s labor minister and as co-leader of the Social Democrats, citing the death of her stepdaughter and “open attacks” on her from inside Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition, DW reported. “I am currently unable to muster the strength to fully carry out my government and party duties,” she said. Alexander Schweitzer, the former SPD premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, takes over the labor ministry; a new party co-chair will be picked at a conference expected early next year. Merz’s conservatives had accused Bas of stalling pension and labor-law changes.

6. Aubagne and Paris / France. A 14-year-old pupil walked into Lakanal middle school in Aubagne, east of Marseille, with a shotgun in a guitar case on Monday morning and shot the head teacher and another teacher before a staff member restrained him, BBC News reported. Their injuries aren’t life-threatening, no children were hurt, and prosecutors opened an attempted-murder investigation. Separately, hackers took over refrigeration software at hundreds of Coopérative U and Intermarché supermarkets, heating some fridges and freezers to 50C overnight and spoiling food worth millions of euros; Paris prosecutors are investigating, BBC News reported. And a pre-dawn fire “totally destroyed” the Marché des Enfants Rouges, Paris’s oldest covered market, dating to 1615, The Guardian reported.

7. Washington, Brussels and Canberra / United States, European Union and Australia. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended the plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan: “I don’t see an elevated risk,” he said on Sunday, BBC News reported. Trump has signed off on the execution, but no final decision on the livestream has been made. The execution is scheduled for December 3. On Monday the European Commission warned platforms they must “enforce their own terms and conditions diligently” in Europe under the Digital Services Act, noting Meta bans livestreamed capital punishment, France 24 reported. In Australia, the Greens want eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to keep the video off Australian screens, The Guardian reported.

8. Jalisco and Islas Marías / Mexico. Hurricane Simon is crawling northwest just off Mexico’s Pacific coast. At 8 a.m. MST it had 110 mph winds and sat 55 miles west-southwest of Cabo Corrientes, moving at 3 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Mexico downgraded the mainland hurricane warnings to a watch and a tropical storm warning, but forecasters expect Simon to turn northeast and approach west-central Mexico again on Wednesday into Thursday, possibly re-strengthening first. A hurricane warning is up for the Islas Marías and a watch runs from north of Cabo Corrientes to Bahía Tempehuaya. Isolated storm totals of 30 inches of rain are possible in Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco, with “life-threatening flooding and mudslides.”

9. Asunción and Belmopan / Paraguay and Belize. China sanctioned Paraguay’s communications minister, Gustavo Villate, and Belize’s foreign minister, Francis Fonseca, over their countries’ ties with Taiwan, freezing any assets in China, barring them from Hong Kong and Macau, and banning Chinese dealings with them, Al Jazeera and the AP reported. Beijing accused the pair of “egregious actions and statements” damaging its core interests. Villate had marked Taiwan’s National Day on social media, and Taiwan’s foreign minister visited Belize last month. Paraguay and Belize are two of the 12 countries that still formally recognize Taiwan.

10. South Africa. Lt Gen Shadrack Sibiya, South Africa’s deputy national police commissioner, resigned on Monday, three weeks after he was charged with sexual offences, BBC News reported. His lawyer handed in the letter at his disciplinary hearing, and police said his exit counts as a dishonourable discharge. The charges involve allegations that he groomed a 16-year-old girl and raped an 18-year-old woman, plus a trafficking charge; Sibiya denies them all and has been in custody since his bail was denied. The Madlanga Commission, probing police corruption, has also heard he was given 20 impalas by an alleged crime boss in exchange for a police contract.

Coming Up

Confirmed dates on The Watch and beyond: October 13, Pope Leo XIV goes into Rome’s Gemelli hospital for lung-nodule surgery, the Vatican says. 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 19, Alberta’s referendum on whether to move toward a binding independence vote.

Sources: The Guardian; Al Jazeera; BBC News; DW; The Globe and Mail; CNBC; Dawn; France 24; AP; Vatican News; U.S. National Hurricane Center.

EU Adds Nearly 1,600 Russian Individuals and Companies to Its Sanctions List in Its Biggest Expansion Since the Invasion: October 12, 2026

LUXEMBOURG — The European Union approved its largest-ever round of sanctions listings against Russia on Monday, targeting nearly 1,600 individuals and businesses tied to Moscow’s war effort as EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg, DW and Al Jazeera reported.

“This is the single largest expansion of our sanctions list since Russia started its war,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote online, adding that more than half of the new listings are connected to the production chain for ballistic missiles. “We are making it significantly harder, slower and more expensive for Russia to produce the weapons it uses to kill Ukrainians,” she said.

Besides the military-industrial listings, the package names another 77 people and groups linked to what the EU regards as illegal elections in occupied parts of Ukraine, DW reported. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who missed the Luxembourg meeting because of a party conference in Berlin, called the measures an “unprecedented sanction blow” to President Vladimir Putin’s war. “The message is clear: Russia cannot and will not win this war,” he said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the West should go further. “This is the moment when the entire West … should show Russia and Putin that it is ready to pursue a policy of containing Russia by even more decisive means,” he told the Warsaw Security Forum, saying he would go to Brussels to urge European partners to consider increasing sanctions.

The move puts Europe at odds with Washington, which on Friday eased sanctions on Russian diesel. “This deal doesn’t help, neither the crisis of the oil products, nor the unity within the transatlantic community when it concerns Russia,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said, according to The Guardian. “Our way is to increase pressure because we already see how it works.”

Sources: DW, Al Jazeera, The Guardian

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Zelenskyy Accuses Russia of Breaking Trump’s ‘Energy Ceasefire’ and Vows to Respond as the Kremlin Rejects a 60-Day Truce: October 12, 2026

KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Monday of violating the “energy ceasefire” that U.S. President Donald Trump announced over the weekend and warned that Ukraine would respond if the attacks continued, while the Kremlin rejected his call for a 60-day truce, Al Jazeera, CBC News and The Guardian reported.

“There were Russian violations of the energy ceasefire announced by President Trump,” Zelenskyy told the Warsaw Security Forum by video link, according to CBC, which cited Reuters. “We are waiting for the details of the conditions between the Americans and Russians,” he said. “This energy ceasefire, it can work, and it can become a major step toward ending the war if the Americans truly step in now and make sure Russians respect it … If Russia does not agree to an energy ceasefire, we will respond.”

Zelenskyy said he was surprised by Trump’s post, which went online while Kyiv was under attack by Russian Shahed drones, and that Russia launched a “targeted attack” on a Kharkiv power station hours later. “It’s clear that Putin does not read Truth Social,” he said, according to The Guardian. Overnight, Russia struck gas production facilities in the Kharkiv region belonging to the state energy company Naftogaz, causing a fire, the company said. “The attack damaged critical equipment,” acting CEO Sergii Fedorenko wrote on Telegram.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said contacts on a possible energy ceasefire were ongoing but declined to say whether it would cover only oil refineries. He rejected Zelenskyy’s proposal of a 60-day ceasefire that would allow Ukraine to hold presidential elections. “In the Kremlin, both President Putin and officials at other levels have repeatedly stated that we do not want a ceasefire,” Peskov said. “We want long-term peace and are prepared to do everything possible to achieve it.”

European leaders said they had seen no sign of a Russian halt. “I have not noted, over the last 48 hours, any energy ceasefire coming from the Russian side,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters, Al Jazeera reported. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc welcomed the ceasefire “when it holds” but argued that a deal limited to refinery strikes favored Russia, which has far more refineries, The Guardian said.

The row began Friday when Trump eased sanctions on Russian diesel, saying it would lower fuel prices before next month’s U.S. midterm elections. Trump then said Zelenskyy should “damn well stop” hitting Russian refineries and that Ukraine needed a “new leader.” Trump made a similar claim on Sept. 14 that both countries had agreed not to hit each other’s energy infrastructure, and nothing came of it, CBC noted.

Sources: Al Jazeera, CBC News, The Guardian

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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.

Ukraine Knocks Out a Third Yandex Data Center in a Week Despite Trump’s Warning, as Zelensky Offers a Reciprocal Halt to Energy Strikes: October 11, 2026

KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian drone strike forced Russian tech giant Yandex to shut down a data center in the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow, on Sunday, the third attack on the company’s facilities this week, hours after President Donald Trump said Ukraine should “damn well stop” hitting Russian oil refineries, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported.

“Operations at the data centre have been completely suspended,” Yandex said in a service alert on Telegram, warning that “the remaining resource configuration is considered unstable” and advising users to activate disaster-recovery plans. No one was injured, but several of its services were unavailable, the company said. Ukrainian strikes shut down Yandex’s hub in Sasovo, southeast of Moscow, on Thursday — where two of the three supercomputers used to develop its AI model are housed — and partly knocked out its center in the Kaluga region on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said later on Sunday that “Ukraine will be ready to stop striking Russian oil refineries if Russia stops striking our energy infrastructure,” adding that “any de-escalation steps must be reciprocal and backed by real guarantees,” the BBC reported. Trump said Saturday it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president” after Zelensky condemned a U.S.-Russian deal to release Russian diesel onto world markets.

Kyiv says it is targeting businesses that feed Moscow’s war revenues. “We always respond in mirror-like fashion,” Zelensky said after the Sasovo strike, adding: “You all know, they have been hitting and continue to hit our data centres. We are responding,” according to Al Jazeera. Russia has struck several Ukrainian data centers and telecommunications sites over the past month, including targets in central Kyiv.

Russian attacks continued through the weekend. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said six people were injured overnight in four districts of the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, and Zelensky said search and rescue work in Zaporizhzhia ended Sunday morning with the death toll from Saturday’s glide-bomb strikes at 23, including four children.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera

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Poland Treats Possible Plot to Attack Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the Defence Minister as ‘Serious’ After Emergency Security Meeting: October 11, 2026

WARSAW, Poland — Polish police have received information about a possible plot to attack Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, authorities said Sunday, and security officials said after an emergency meeting that they were treating it as serious, The Guardian and Al Jazeera reported.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałęcka said on social media that the ministry had ordered “action to be taken in this matter” and that police, the State Protection Service and ministry officials would meet on Sunday. Government spokesman Adam Szłapka said Tusk had learned about the “exceptionally concerning” threat first thing Sunday morning.

“We take this matter extremely seriously,” said Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the minister who oversees Poland’s intelligence services, after the meeting. He said the authorities considered there was a high probability that the threats would have been carried out, and that the information first reached the State Protection Service, which passed it to police, according to The Guardian. He gave no further details, though Polsat News quoted him as saying further action had been agreed, and Radio Zet reported that police had received an email about the threat, Al Jazeera said.

No information was immediately released about the origin of the alleged plot. Kosiniak-Kamysz is also deputy prime minister. Dobrzyński said Polish services are receiving a growing number of threats of various kinds every month.

Poland has been on high alert after three attacks at schools in central Poland’s Mazovia province in four days this week left one person dead and many wounded, including children, and amid fears of Russian “hybrid” sabotage aimed at weakening Western support for Ukraine. Tusk said last month that Moscow was likely to step up such attacks on NATO’s eastern flank; Russia denies any such plans.

Sources: The Guardian, Al Jazeera

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Pope Leo XIV to Undergo Surgery This Week to Remove an Early-Stage Nodule on His Lung: October 11, 2026

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that he will have surgery in the coming days to remove a nodule found on his lung during a recent medical check, telling pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that it had been caught early, BBC News and The Guardian reported.

“Doctors found a small, localised nodule in my lung. It was detected at a very early stage and is circumscribed. The doctors believe it’s best to take action, so, following their advice, I’ve decided to have surgery to remove it,” the 71-year-old pontiff said in Italian at the end of his Sunday noon prayer. “The surgery is already scheduled for the coming days. Thank you for your spiritual support, and I entrust myself to your prayers,” he said, according to The Guardian.

Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni said the operation is scheduled for the first days of this week and that recovery is expected to take about a week. Vatican News said it will take place at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, which keeps a special papal suite that has been used since the failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Leo, born Robert Francis Provost, became the first American pope in 2025, succeeding Pope Francis, who died of a stroke in April 2025 after a long hospitalization for double pneumonia. Leo has no previously known health problems and is considered physically active, with weekly tennis games and swimming at the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo, The Guardian said.

The pope said his planned Nov. 6–17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru would still go ahead. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “personal solidarity,” President Sergio Mattarella wished him “a peaceful recovery and a speedy and full return to health,” and Israeli President Isaac Herzog also sent wishes for a full recovery, the BBC reported.

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian

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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.