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Albania’s Edi Rama Refuses to Resign as Student Protesters Torch Ministries in Tirana: October 15, 2026

TIRANA, Albania — Prime Minister Edi Rama vowed he will not resign as student-led anti-government protests entered a third day of clashes with police in Tirana, after demonstrators attacked ministries and set the Education Ministry ablaze, BBC News and The Guardian reported.

Protests that began Tuesday over university conditions, tuition and job prospects turned violent on Wednesday. Riot police used tear gas and water cannon; police said 51 officers were injured and 65 people arrested, while Tirana’s public hospital treated seven injured protesters, The Guardian reported.

“As for calls for my resignation, governments are changed through democratic elections. We had elections last year, not a revolution,” Rama told Reuters in written answers cited by the Guardian. He said he would discuss education costs but condemned attacks on institutions as unrelated to legitimate student demands.

Deputy Prime Minister Albana Koçiu urged “calmness” and said “Albania does not need to burn to change.” Student Enida Bimi told Reuters the anger was about “corruption all around,” while Education Minister Mirela Kumbaro drew a line between civic protest and violence against public property. The unrest is the biggest challenge yet to Rama’s fourth term.

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian

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Zelenskyy Says ‘We’re Done’ Holding Back as Ukraine Hits a Ryazan Refinery After Trump’s Energy Pause Collapses: October 15, 2026

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is finished holding back strikes on Russian energy sites after a brief pause tied to U.S. President Donald Trump’s so-called “energy ceasefire,” as Russia reported a fire at a refinery in the Ryazan region early Thursday, BBC News, NPR and DW reported.

“The block [on energy infrastructure attacks] is out. We’re done,” Zelenskyy told the Financial Times, according to DW and the BBC. Kyiv had restricted attacks for about three days while Russia kept hitting Ukrainian power infrastructure, leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity. The Kremlin never said it had agreed to Trump’s Sunday proposal.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said four missiles and dozens of drones were intercepted and that falling debris caused a fire at a plant south of Moscow in Ryazan; a senior Ukrainian official confirmed to NPR that Ukraine had hit the refinery. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Kyiv of clashing with U.S. peace efforts.

Zelenskyy also accused Washington of cutting intelligence-sharing on Russian ballistic launches and of deliberate Starshield/Starlink limits to pressure Kyiv after a U.S. deal to import Russian diesel — claims Trump has denied on intelligence and that SpaceX’s Elon Musk has partly attributed to U.S. military decisions.

Separately on Thursday, Zelenskyy’s office said Ukrainian forces had struck an airfield in Russia’s Voronezh region overnight, destroying four Su-34 jets and damaging two more that it said were loaded to attack Ukraine.

Sources: BBC News, NPR, DW

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Colombia Opens an Embassy in Jerusalem and Restores Its Free-Trade Deal With Israel: October 14, 2026

JERUSALEM — Colombia opened its embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, becoming the 10th country to do so, as new President Abelardo de la Espriella reversed his predecessor’s break with Israel and restored a free-trade agreement, Reuters reported via Al-Monitor and The Jerusalem Post.

Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar cut a ribbon beside Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. “Today, we are taking a concrete step towards restoring diplomatic relations between our countries, relations that should never have been broken,” Escobar said. Saar called the move recognition that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and “a historical truth.”

Most countries keep embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv. Israel regards Jerusalem as its capital; Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Former Colombian President Gustavo Petro broke relations in May 2024 over Israel’s Gaza campaign, closed the Tel Aviv embassy and recalled Colombia’s ambassador — a step Israel called antisemitic. De la Espriella, a right-winger who took office in August, reinstated the free-trade pact on Tuesday, Al-Monitor (Reuters) reported.

Countries that have moved embassies to Jerusalem since the United States did so in 2018 include Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and Somaliland, Israel’s Foreign Ministry noted. Saar and Escobar were also due to hold bilateral talks Wednesday.

Sources: Al-Monitor (Reuters), The Jerusalem Post

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Mauritius Imposes an Overnight Curfew After the Worst Riots in Decades Follow a Police Shooting: October 14, 2026

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius — Police in Mauritius enforced an overnight curfew to quell the island’s worst riots in decades after a woman was shot and wounded by an officer at a roadblock, BBC News, Al Jazeera and AFP reported.

Protests over water shortages and the cost of living that began about a week ago turned violent after 27-year-old Elodie Thomas was shot Friday while traveling home from work. The officer has been arrested and remanded; the Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating. Indian surgeons removed a bullet in an operation Monday, local media said.

Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam ordered the curfew from 8:30 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday across roughly a third of the island, including Port Louis and major population centres. He warned against those “acting against the interests of the country” and said perpetrators would face “very heavy consequences,” the BBC reported. Protesters had burned tyres, blocked roads, vandalized police stations and torched vehicles; schools and public transport closed, and foreign embassies issued caution alerts.

Police said some incidents and arrests continued overnight despite the curfew, but by Wednesday morning traffic was moving and residents were urged to resume normal activities. The cabinet was due to meet Wednesday afternoon to reassess next steps. Analyst Zoë McCathie of Signal Risk told the BBC protests on this scale had not been seen since about 1999, when police were also a main target.

AFP said looting hit two supermarkets and several officers were injured. Ramgoolam has also blamed drug traffickers for orchestrating disorder — a claim local reporting has not independently verified. Water shortages are expected to persist until the rainy season in December.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera, AFP (via Africanews)

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Russia Arrests Japanese Journalist Yuki Imai on Espionage Charges in Sakhalin as Kuril Tensions Rise: October 14, 2026

MOSCOW — Russian authorities have arrested Japanese journalist Yuki Imai of the Hokkaido Shimbun on suspicion of espionage, accusing him of gathering defence-related information for Tokyo, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported Wednesday.

Imai was detained in the far-eastern Sakhalin region a day before he was due to leave Russia, flown to Moscow and ordered into pre-trial detention until Dec. 12, Russian agencies said. The FSB released video of masked officers handcuffing a man in a hotel room and later showing him in a Moscow courtroom cage. Espionage convictions in Russia can bring up to 20 years in prison.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tokyo’s alleged use of accredited correspondents to undermine Russian security was “regrettable” and “not an isolated” case. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Tokyo learned of the arrest only when it was announced and had not yet contacted Imai. Hokkaido Shimbun said ensuring the reporter’s safety was its top priority, the BBC reported.

The arrest comes amid worsening ties after Vladimir Putin visited the disputed Kuril Islands in August — islands Japan calls the Northern Territories. Tokyo says the visit wounded Japanese feelings; Moscow dismissed the criticism. Japan has sanctioned Russia over the Ukraine war, and last week Moscow sought the extradition of ICC President Tomoko Akane, who is Japanese.

Russia previously detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges in 2023 before a 2024 prisoner swap, and in 2019 briefly held a Kyodo News journalist in Vladivostok before expelling him.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera

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Turkish Police Raid Opposition Channel Halk TV, Halt Live Broadcasts and Install a Government Trustee: October 14, 2026

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish police raided the Istanbul headquarters of Halk TV, one of the country’s most-watched news channels, early Wednesday, cutting live broadcasts and paving the way for a government-appointed administrator to run the outlet, BBC News reported.

Financial crimes officers searched the building and took 11 people into custody in a probe linked to channel chairman Cafer Mahiroğlu, Turkish media said. Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 17 people on allegations of bribery, tender-rigging and money laundering. Mahiroğlu, reportedly abroad during the raid, said seven relatives were among those detained and called it “a dark day for Turkey,” arguing the public’s right to information was being seized for political reasons.

Halk’s linear channel and YouTube livestreams were offline early Wednesday. Journalists were initially locked out, then allowed back under a heavy police presence, the BBC said. The channel is widely seen as close to the opposition Republican People’s Party and frequently criticizes President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AK Party.

The Istanbul Bar Association condemned the raid, noting it came hours before imprisoned opposition figure Ekrem İmamoğlu was due to open his defence against corruption charges. Opposition leader Özgür Özel called the dawn raid and trustee appointment “something only dictators do.”

Turkey ranked 159th of 180 in Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index, with RSF saying about 90% of national media is under government control. Authorities seized control of another critical channel, Tele1, in October 2025, stripping it of hard-news content.

Sources: BBC News

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Germany Opens Nord Stream Sabotage Trial in Hamburg as a Ukrainian Defendant Faces War-Crime Charges: October 14, 2026

HAMBURG, Germany — A Ukrainian citizen identified as Serhii K. went on trial Wednesday before Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court over the September 2022 explosions that wrecked three of four Nord Stream gas pipeline sections in the Baltic Sea, DW and Reuters reported.

Prosecutors accuse him of being an accomplice to a war crime by attacking civilian energy infrastructure, as well as disruption of public services, causing an explosion and destroying structures. He was arrested in Italy in August 2025 on a European warrant and extradited to Germany. Defence lawyers at the opening argued the bombing may not have been a crime under German law, Reuters said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly denied that Ukraine took part in the attack. “Ukraine has never officially taken part in any operation related to the blowing up of Nord Stream,” he told reporters again in August, DW noted. The case is politically sensitive in Germany, which continues to arm and fund Kyiv while hosting about 1.3 million Ukrainian refugees.

Critics of Ukraine aid, including the far-right AfD and the left-populist BSW, have already linked the defendant to Kyiv’s leadership and demanded explanations or compensation — claims that have not been proven in court. German naval commander Göran Swistek said in 2023 that the operation’s scale pointed to a state actor but argued Ukraine was an unlikely culprit because it would not want to jeopardize German support.

The blasts ended a mega-project that once carried Russian gas to Germany. Nord Stream 1 had already been curtailed by Moscow after the full-scale invasion; Nord Stream 2 never entered service. The trial’s outcome is expected to shape German debate over continued military and financial support for Ukraine.

Sources: DW, Reuters

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SpaceX Speed Limits on Starlink Disrupt Ukraine’s Front-Line Drone Missions as Russia Pounds Energy Sites Overnight: October 14, 2026

KYIV, Ukraine — Overnight speed limits on Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network disrupted Ukrainian battlefield “missions,” an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Wednesday, as Russia’s latest missile and drone barrage left hundreds of thousands without power, BBC News, DW and CBC News reported.

Serhiy Beskrestnov said SpaceX had “implemented overnight a speed limit on Starlink terminals” at 100 mph (160 km/h) without informing Ukrainian troops, and that the change had already disrupted operations. A Ukrainian defence ministry source confirmed the restriction to the BBC, saying terminals lose connectivity once a vehicle or asset exceeds that speed — a problem for interceptor and mid-range strike drones as well as front-line logistics and reconnaissance. SpaceX has not publicly commented. Beskrestnov wrote that the move “cannot be a coincidence” and is tied to “the current political situation.”

Starlink remains a critical tool for guiding drones and defending Ukrainian airspace. The speed-limit dispute comes amid friction with Washington over strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and Trump’s claimed “energy ceasefire,” which Moscow has rejected.

Zelenskyy said Russia fired 39 ballistic and cruise missiles and more than 120 attack drones overnight at energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Kharkiv, leaving at least 600,000 people without electricity. Local officials said three people were killed in Kyiv. Ukraine’s air force said four missiles and 115 drones were shot down. It was the second night in a row ballistic missiles struck the capital without early partner warnings, the BBC said. Zelenskyy was due to meet British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in London on Wednesday to press for more air defenses.

Sources: BBC News, DW, CBC News

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Argentina Asks the U.N. Law of the Sea Tribunal to Halt Falklands Oil Drilling as Britain Urges Interpol to Reject Milei’s Arrest Requests: October 13, 2026

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina said Tuesday it has asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for provisional measures to stop British-authorized oil activity off the Falkland Islands, escalating a dispute that The Guardian reported has pushed tensions over the islands to levels not seen since the 1982 war, according to Reuters and the Argentine broadcaster TN.

The request aims to prevent the United Kingdom from exploiting hydrocarbons on the continental shelf of the North Falklands Basin, where the Sea Lion project is being developed, and “seeks to preserve Argentina’s sovereign rights over its continental shelf and prevent activities authorized unilaterally and illegally by the United Kingdom,” the government said, Reuters reported. TN said the filing to the Hamburg-based tribunal came the day after a two-week deadline President Javier Milei gave Britain on Sept. 28 expired, and forms part of an arbitration case Argentina opened under Annex VII of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Britain, meanwhile, has written to Interpol urging it to treat Argentine “red notice” requests for the arrest of people involved in Sea Lion, including British nationals, as politically motivated, The Guardian reported. Interpol is understood to have replied that it would respect Article 3 of its constitution, which bars interventions of a political character, the paper said. “One would hope that Interpol wouldn’t necessarily take action,” said Andrea Clausen, chief executive of the Falkland Islands government.

Milei has opened criminal proceedings against Israeli company Navitas Petroleum and its British partner Rockhopper Exploration, the core companies in Sea Lion, and a bill before Argentina’s Congress would toughen penalties on companies and individuals working on Falklands resources without Argentine authorization. The companies have said they do not expect Argentina’s actions to derail the project, which The Guardian said could triple the islands’ GDP.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told Parliament on Monday that he had raised “the clear and declared will of the islanders to remain British” with President Donald Trump, according to The Guardian. Argentina claims sovereignty over the islands, which it calls Las Malvinas, and dismisses a 2013 referendum in which 99.8% of voters chose to remain a British territory.

Sources: Reuters (via Devdiscourse), The Guardian, TN

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Speaker Johnson, the EU and Australia’s Prime Minister Push Back on the Pentagon’s Plan to Livestream Nidal Hasan’s Firing-Squad Execution: October 13, 2026

WASHINGTON — Opposition is mounting at home and abroad to the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the Dec. 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the European Commission and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese all raising objections, CNA, France 24 and ABC News (Australia) reported.

“The concern would be that you would create a video that would be a recruiting tool for future terrorists,” Johnson said in an interview broadcast Monday by CBS News, according to CNA. “We’ve got to think through the policy implications of all that.” Johnson said he would not watch the execution if it were aired. It would be the first U.S. military execution by firing squad since 1945, CNA said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended the idea. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” he said. President Donald Trump has said a final decision on whether to broadcast the execution has yet to be made, and Vice President JD Vance has cast doubt on whether it will happen, ABC reported.

In Brussels, Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said platforms operating in Europe must enforce their own rules under the Digital Services Act. “If you look at some platforms, Meta explicitly forbids the live streaming of capital punishments, and X and TikTok both forbid … shocking content, glorifying violence,” he said, according to France 24. “No comment on what they do in the US but in Europe, we have clear obligations.”

In Canberra, Albanese said Tuesday his government would do “whatever it can” to stop the stream being seen in Australia. “I find the idea of live streaming the death of anybody completely abhorrent,” he told the ABC, adding that platforms have “a social responsibility here to do the right thing.” Australia’s eSafety Commission said it lacks the power to proactively block such a stream, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Senate it would be “deeply distressing for any such vision to be live streamed.”

Sources: CNA, France 24, ABC News (Australia)

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