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Zelenskyy Arrives in Oslo for Talks With Witkoff as Rubio Calls Claims the U.S. Is Withholding Intelligence ‘Scandalous’: October 20, 2026

OSLO, Norway — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Norway on Tuesday for talks with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and European leaders, as relations between Kyiv and President Donald Trump continue to slide, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Zelenskyy had asked Oslo and neighbouring Finland to organise the meeting “at a critical time for Ukraine,” and that the aim was to steer relations towards “a more constructive path.” Jared Kushner was expected to take part by video link, along with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and officials from the U.K., Poland, France, Germany, the EU and NATO, the BBC reported.

Before the talks, Zelenskyy said he had held a “substantive conversation” with Secretary of State Marco Rubio about ballistic missile interceptors, early warning of Russian attacks and SpaceX’s Starlink network:

Rubio, speaking in India, rejected suggestions that Washington was deliberately hindering Ukraine’s defences. “I saw someone associated with the Ukrainian government say that people of Ukraine are dying because the U.S. is denying them information,” he said. “That’s scandalous, that’s outrageous, that’s just simply not true,” CBC News reported. He denied any “deliberate political directive to harm Ukraine,” but acknowledged that Patriot interceptors may not yet have arrived. “I also talked to Saudi Arabia today, they’d like interceptors, Israel would like interceptors, we would like interceptors,” he said.

Rubio was responding after Zelenskyy’s military technical adviser, Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, told the BBC that the lack of reliable U.S. warnings meant lives were being lost. “Sometimes we receive this information before the attack, another time we [do] not,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he hoped a meeting with Witkoff could be organised in the near future, adding that “we greatly appreciate the mediation efforts of the American negotiators.” It was not yet clear whether Witkoff would travel on to Russia, the BBC reported.

Russian attacks killed at least seven people across Ukraine on Tuesday, including three when two vehicles caught fire on the Kyiv-Odesa highway, CBC News reported. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg that “the only one who doesn’t want peace is Russia.”

Sources: BBC News, CBC News, Al Jazeera

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Driver Charged With Three Offences in Alleged Targeted Attack on Australian MP Helen Haines, Who Has Lost a Leg: October 20, 2026

WANGARATTA, Australia — Victoria Police have charged Brendan Nugent, 43, with three offences after independent MP Helen Haines was struck by a car outside her electorate office in Wangaratta on Monday, in what police will allege was a targeted attack, ABC News, The Guardian and CBC News reported.

Nugent, of nearby Tarrawingee, was charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and the federal offence of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, ABC News reported. He is due to appear in Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

The ABC confirmed that Haines, 65, has lost one leg and that doctors are fighting to save the other after she was pinned between two cars. She remained in a critical but stable condition at Melbourne’s Alfred hospital, The Guardian reported.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said witnesses described “the driver doing a U-turn to get into the car park and to ram Helen against a vehicle, then to reverse and do it a second time.” Police said one of their highway patrol officers responded only eight seconds after emergency services were called, and that a search warrant was executed at Nugent’s property on Tuesday morning.

Ricky Jefferies, whose barbershop is next door to Haines’s office, ran out to help detain the driver. “I had no choice but to take him out of the car because it was the right and safest thing to do,” he told reporters. Police confirmed a knife had been found. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese phoned Jefferies to thank him, saying, “It’s a reminder that at the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character,” CBC News reported.

Nugent’s father, Rod Nugent, and his partner, Christine Cunningham, said in a statement that Haines had been their friend for more than 20 years. “What happened to her yesterday is devastating and unfathomable,” they said. “We will be assisting Victoria Police in any way we can.”

Police said the incident appears to have been isolated, with no other known threats. Burke said there were 1,067 reports of harassment or threats against high office holders in Australia in the last financial year, up from 951 the year before. “There is a direct line between the temperature of debate and things willing people will say, and then when people are willing to take action,” he said.

Sources: ABC News, The Guardian, CBC News

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Alberta Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Starting the Path Toward a Referendum on Leaving Canada: October 20, 2026

EDMONTON, Alberta — Voters in Alberta overwhelmingly chose to remain part of Canada in Monday’s referendum, rejecting a move to begin the legal process toward a binding vote on independence, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta reported by NPR, BBC News and Al Jazeera.

With around 1.8 million votes counted, about 76% supported remaining in Canada and 24% backed beginning a process that could lead to separation, Al Jazeera reported. The vote was not a direct referendum on independence, but approval would have set the oil-rich province on a path toward a future vote on leaving Canada.

Results were delayed after late openings forced more than 100 polling stations to extend voting hours on Monday, NPR reported.

“Albertans made a clear choice,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said. “They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other. Above all, Albertans chose Canada.” Carney said the result would let Canadians accelerate efforts to diversify trade, develop major infrastructure projects and make Canada a global energy powerhouse, with Alberta at its center. He posted his statement on X:

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who opposed separation but called the vote after a grassroots petition gathered about 300,000 signatures, welcomed the early results. “Albertans have voted for a stronger Alberta in a united Canada,” she posted on social media. Smith had said before the vote that if voters chose to remain, a referendum on separation would not be held, at least not while she was in power, the BBC reported. She said she would address the province Tuesday evening.

Separatist leaders said their campaign was not over. Jeffrey Rath, a Calgary lawyer and a leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the BBC the vote was a “first step” and that “our movement isn’t stopping and we’re continuing to move forward.” Keith Wilson, another separatist leader, said “it is fair to say that at least a quarter of Albertans feel that Alberta needs to be treated better,” NPR reported. Separatists have indicated they plan to try to push Smith out as leader of the United Conservative Party, the BBC said.

Alberta’s independence push had drawn interest from allies of President Donald Trump, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who called Alberta Washington’s “natural partner,” Al Jazeera reported. Trump’s trade war and threats to make Canada the 51st state helped Carney rally support in a province where Liberal prime ministers have historically been unpopular, according to NPR.

Nine other questions were on Monday’s ballot, five on immigration and four on the Canadian constitution, and are still being tallied. Quebec held two unsuccessful independence referendums, in 1980 and 1995.

Sources: NPR, BBC News, Al Jazeera

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World Brief, Evening: October 19, 2026

France put parts of Paris and other cities under curfew; Volodymyr Zelenskyy told U.S. senators the Pentagon is sitting on air-defence missiles Europe has already paid for; and Albertans have finished voting, though late-opening polls mean no results until after 10 p.m. Mountain. Ten stories as of Monday evening, October 19.

1. Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Nice / France, and Milan / Italy. Paris police put Place de la République and the Les Halles shopping area under curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., and banned unauthorised gatherings in other parts of the city centre, BBC News reported. Partial curfews on young people and gatherings were also announced for Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice, Lyon, Lille and other towns. More than 2,500 people have been arrested since the weekend. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu promised a law to make those who damaged property pay, plus a partial-unemployment fund for people who couldn’t work; France’s chambers of commerce say more than 2,000 businesses were hit and put the damage at “hundreds of millions of euros.” Unions have already called new rallies for November 5, per DW. In Kansas, Donald Trump told a rally France had been “conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists,” and earlier told reporters that “Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon,” The Guardian reported. In Italy, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said 500 more troops will be sent to “defend Milan” after two days of unrest; police there detained 271 young people on Sunday, per The Guardian.

2. Kyiv and Nova Vodolaha / Ukraine, and Washington / United States. Zelenskyy told U.S. senators that “the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles” already paid for by European allies, with one shipment waiting only on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s signature: “The missiles are ready, and they could already be in Ukraine,” DW reported. He said “some political decision has been made to slow down the support for us,” per The Guardian; a White House official said the U.S. “continues to play a constructive role.” Trump shot back that “Zelensky doesn’t know what he’s talking about” and that “it’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.” He also said he’d meet Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, possibly without Zelenskyy, “whether somebody’s there or not,” and that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” CNBC reported. Earlier Monday a Russian drone hit a park near a café in Nova Vodolaha in the Kharkiv region, killing six people, among them a one-year-old girl and her mother. Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Norway this week for the next round of talks, Reuters reported. Zelenskyy’s account of his call with the senators:

3. Edmonton, Calgary and Wainwright / Alberta, Canada. Voting in Alberta’s referendum on whether to start the road to a binding independence vote has wrapped up at most polls, but 106 polling stations opened late, so they’re staying open longer and no results will come until every station has closed, CBC News reported. The last, Edmonton’s Westminster School, closes at 10 p.m. Mountain (9 p.m. Pacific). Elections Alberta asked people “to be patient and be kind” to poll workers (Elections Alberta). Turnout looks huge: 1,356,873 people, 43.1% of eligible voters, voted early or by special ballot, and the agency expects turnout as high as 85%, per the National Post. The separation question is counted first; results on the nine other questions are due within 48 hours. Polls before the vote pointed to a win for staying in Canada. In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the fire that killed four soldiers at CFB Wainwright was “driven by ferocious winds” and jumped nearly a kilometre in less than a minute; the troops had been preparing to deploy to Latvia, BBC News reported.

4. Riyadh / Saudi Arabia, and Jerusalem / Israel. Saudi Arabia postponed its Future Investment Initiative, the “Davos in the Desert” that was due to open October 26, to 2027 as Houthi attacks on the kingdom continue, Al Jazeera reported; Riyadh government agencies have told staff to work from home. The Houthis claimed new attacks Monday on King Khalid International Airport, Abha airport, Aramco facilities in Yanbu and the Shaybah oilfield, per CNBC. U.S. embassies across 12 Middle East countries issued matching alerts warning that hostilities could “escalate rapidly,” and Qatar Airways suspended flights to Riyadh and Dammam until October 24, Euronews reported. In Israel, Hegseth met Benjamin Netanyahu on an unannounced visit, Axios reported, eight days before Israel votes, per Al Jazeera. JD Vance, meanwhile, declined to follow Trump’s endorsement: “I’m not anti-endorsing him, but I’m not pro-endorsing him.”

5. Tanegashima / Japan. JAXA launched its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft on H3 flight No. 10 at 4:41 a.m. Tuesday Japan time (12:41 p.m. Monday Pacific), and confirmed the probe separated about 71 minutes after liftoff and is in its planned orbit, the agency said. It’s due at Phobos in August 2027, where a small rover will scout a landing site before the spacecraft touches down to scoop up moondust, BBC News reported. If it works, it’ll be the first sample ever returned from Mars or its moons; the capsule is set to land in the Woomera desert of South Australia in 2031. The goal is at least 10 grams of material, per ABC News.

6. Wangaratta / Victoria, Australia. The man in custody over the attack on independent MP Helen Haines is Brendan Nugent, 43, a former anti-logging campaigner, ABC News reported. The ABC also confirmed Haines has lost a leg after being pinned between two cars outside her electorate office; she had surgery overnight at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said witnesses described the driver doing a U-turn before hitting her twice, and federal and Victorian police are weighing charges such as causing harm to a Commonwealth official, which carries up to 10 years, per The Guardian, which reports she’s critical but stable. ASIO chief Mike Burgess warned about “violent rhetoric in public discourse.”

7. Near Kampala / Uganda. Robert Kabera, 50, a former Rwandan army sergeant major turned YouTuber and outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame, was found beheaded in the village of Luwala outside Kampala, Al Jazeera reported. Police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said the head still hasn’t been found and that he was likely killed late on October 16 or early October 17. Kabera’s channel had more than 144,000 subscribers. Rwanda’s government hasn’t commented; his widow told the BBC she now fears for her family’s safety, and the exiled Rwanda National Congress asked, “where can we be safe?” per BBC News.

8. West Kordofan, Darfur and Khartoum / Sudan. Drone attacks across Sudan have killed more than 160 people in western regions since Friday, medics and rights groups say, Al Jazeera reported. The deadliest was Sunday’s strike on a transport hub near the market in al-Dibab, which killed 80. On Monday drones killed three children in Khartoum and 17 people, including seven RSF officers, in Nyala, and an RSF drone on Friday killed 41 displaced people in Blue Nile state. The UN said it was “alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes.”

9. Valencia and Alicante / Spain. At least four people died as torrential rain flooded Spain’s eastern Mediterranean coast, and rescuers pulled more than 450 people from rooftops, buildings and cars, DW reported. Two bodies were recovered in Oliva, a man drowned at the beach in Sagunto, and a woman died after falling into a swollen stream in Catalonia. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez sent military emergency teams; schools closed and flights were disrupted in the Balearic Islands. It comes almost two years after floods killed more than 220 people in the Valencia region.

10. Nariño / Colombia. An illegal gold mine collapsed in the rural Chambero area of Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé in southwestern Colombia, killing 14 people and injuring seven, Al Jazeera reported. A disaster official said another 12 to 15 miners are reported missing, and the area, surrounded by rainforest, can only be reached by boat or small plane. Governor Luis Alfonso Escobar called it an “informal” mine; 13 people died in a similar collapse in Nariño in August.

Coming Up

Confirmed dates on The Watch: Tonight, Alberta’s referendum results, after the last polls close at 10 p.m. Mountain (9 p.m. Pacific). October 25, Brazil’s presidential runoff (Flávio Bolsonaro vs Lula). October 27, Israel’s election for the 26th Knesset, and the Fed’s two-day meeting opens in Washington (October 27–28). Full board at the link.

World Brief: October 19, 2026

France’s prime minister wants partial curfews after police admitted they “lost control” over the weekend; Russia knocked out power across Kyiv again, and Ukraine says its partners gave no warning; and an Australian MP is in critical condition after being run down outside her office in what the prime minister calls “a deliberate act.” Ten stories as of Monday morning, October 19.

1. Paris, Marseille and Lyon / France. After an emergency cabinet meeting Monday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he’d asked regional authorities to impose “local and partial” curfews where needed, and that a state of emergency is possible “if needed,” though not for whole cities like Paris, The Guardian reported. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez conceded police “lost control” in places, blaming a “lack of anticipation”: intelligence predicted 200,000 marchers and more than 500,000 showed up. He offered to resign; Emmanuel Macron refused and ordered a review of the “failures in anticipation and intelligence,” per DW. Nearly 2,400 people have been arrested and almost 1,000 police and gendarmes hurt; another 350 people were arrested overnight into Monday, Marseille banned gatherings from noon to 8 p.m. Monday, and student protesters kept the Louvre shut. Markets noticed: the 10-year French bond yield jumped as much as 16 basis points to 4.94%, near a 24-year high, The Guardian reported. Next door, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni called an emergency security meeting after clashes in Milan, where more than 200 people were detained, 80% of them minors, per BBC News.

2. Kyiv / Ukraine, and Moscow / Russia. Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles at Ukraine’s energy system overnight, 10 of which hit, cutting power to about 550,000 households and killing at least one person; the air force also counted 269 Shahed drones, DW reported. Zelenskyy said “once again, there was no early warning from our partners,” and an air force spokesman said no warning came before the 11 p.m. strike on Kyiv’s power plants, though one did before a 3 a.m. wave, per The Guardian. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Uzbekistan, said “there’s been no pause” in intelligence sharing, pointed to “a software problem” with the early-warning system a few nights ago, and said Zelenskyy should “focus” on ending the war. Trump says Friday’s sanctions waivers are meant to keep Russia at “the bargaining table,” BBC News reported. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a Putin–Xi–Trump meeting has “indeed been mentioned,” since all three could attend next month’s APEC summit in China, but that no concrete proposals exist, France 24/AFP reported. By Monday afternoon in Kyiv, Zelenskyy put the damage at 28 substations:

3. Wangaratta / Victoria, Australia, and Aitutaki / Cook Islands. Independent MP Helen Haines, 65, is in critical condition at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne after a white Toyota LandCruiser hit her outside her electorate office in Wangaratta on Monday afternoon local time, ABC News reported. Passers-by held the 43-year-old driver, from nearby Tarrawingee, until police arrived, and officers found a knife in the vehicle. “This wasn’t an accident. This was a deliberate act,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said; the joint counterterrorism unit has been activated, but he said it’s too early to talk about motive, per BBC News. Out in the Cook Islands, Cyclone Wati left Aitutaki’s newly upgraded Arutanga harbour causeway underwater, Mayor Nick Henry told RNZ Pacific; no injuries had been reported as the storm moved on toward the other southern islands.

4. Shabwa / Yemen, and Cairo / Egypt. Three Houthi ballistic missiles hit the al-Alam training camp in southern Yemen as recruits lined up in formation, killing at least 53 and injuring more than 200, the biggest single loss of life since the civil war reignited in September, The Guardian reported. The Houthis said they targeted “the Saudi enemy’s mobilisations.” Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, vowed a “firm response,” per DW, and has asked UN Secretary-General António Guterres to classify the Houthis as a terrorist organisation. In Cairo, Egypt’s parliament put off its vote on letting the military help defend Saudi Arabia again, this time to October 26, Reuters reported via Dawn.

5. Edmonton, Calgary and Wainwright / Alberta, Canada. Albertans are voting today on whether the province should stay in Canada or start the constitutional process toward a binding separation referendum; polls opened at 9 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Mountain time (7 p.m. Pacific), DW reported. Polls suggest most will vote to stay, and Premier Danielle Smith, who opposes separation, has said a binding vote could come as soon as 2027 if Albertans vote to move ahead, per BBC News. The campaign ended in the shadow of Saturday’s fire at CFB Wainwright. The military now confirms four soldiers dead and 39 people in hospital, 19 of them critical. Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland said a grass fire on a training range moved a kilometre “in 30 to 60 seconds,” and investigators don’t believe oil or gas infrastructure caused any explosions, walking back early reports of a struck gas line, BBC News reported.

6. Gaza, and Abu Falah / occupied West Bank. The World Food Programme has had to drop more than half a million people a month in Gaza, scaling aid back to 1.1 million as its funding fell by more than half from 2025 levels, The Guardian reported. “These are very fragile gains, easily reversed, and the situation is still brutal,” said Shaun Hughes, WFP’s Palestine director; 200,000 people are at emergency hunger levels, one step short of famine. In the West Bank, Israeli police arrested 10 suspects over last week’s settler attacks on Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine near Abu Falah and on European diplomats in Taybeh, BBC News reported. Levine has four broken vertebrae; U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee called the arrests “a very positive development.”

7. Tehran / Iran, and the Strait of Hormuz. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Iran’s Abbas Araghchi in Tehran, his first visit since February 2025 and a day after Gulf states in Bahrain urged him to help reopen the strait, Al Jazeera reported. Araghchi blamed the “insecurity around the Strait of Hormuz” on the US-Israeli war, and Lavrov said Russian specialists will gradually return to the Bushehr nuclear plant. On the water, Iran has hit at least 15 container ships in the past 10 days, and Brent crude was near $108 a barrel Monday morning, The Guardian reported. The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre logged 254 transits in the week to October 14, about 70% below pre-war levels.

8. Mombasa / Kenya. A Kenyan court found Paul Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Ministries doomsday cult, guilty of murdering 191 people, all but one of them children, whom he ordered starved so they could “meet Jesus,” BBC News reported. Twenty-nine other cult leaders were convicted too. More than 400 bodies were found in shallow graves in the Shakahola forest, and Monday’s ruling in Mombasa is the first judgment in the case, per Al Jazeera. Separately, Kenya’s Ebola count rose to eight on Sunday after a 49-year-old patient attendant tested positive in quarantine; officials say there’s no community transmission yet, AP reported.

9. Al-Dibab / West Kordofan, Sudan. A drone strike on a transport hub near a market killed 80 people Sunday evening, most of them people catching rides home after market day, The Guardian reported. It’s one of the deadliest single strikes of the war. A witness said the drone struck twice, 10 minutes apart; a medic said 30 of the 80 died after being taken to al-Mujlad. The RSF-declared Tasis administration, which controls all of West Kordofan, blamed the army.

10. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro / Brazil. Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro’s first runoff debate on Sunday night quickly turned personal: Lula called his rival “a habitual liar, a thug,” and Bolsonaro said he’d keep his distance “because my wallet could be stolen,” DW reported, after rival rallies in São Paulo and on Rio’s Copacabana beach. Analysts told BBC News Brasil there was barely any policy talk, though Lula did offer to open his financial and phone records and dared Bolsonaro to do the same, per BBC News. Bolsonaro won the first round 47% to 45.2%; the second and final debate is Friday.

Coming Up

Confirmed dates for the week ahead (full board on The Watch): Today, October 19, Alberta’s referendum, with polls closing at 8 p.m. Mountain (7 p.m. Pacific). Today at 12:41 p.m. Pacific (October 20, 4:41 a.m. in Japan), JAXA is set to launch its MMX mission to Mars’s moon Phobos from Tanegashima. October 23, Brazil’s second runoff debate. October 25, Brazil’s presidential runoff (Flávio Bolsonaro vs Lula). October 26, Egypt’s parliament is due to vote on military support for Saudi Arabia. October 27, Israel’s election for the 26th Knesset, and the Fed’s two-day meeting opens in Washington (October 27–28). We don’t reprint the whole list here.

Ebola Reaches an Eighth Congo Province as Kenya Confirms an Eighth Case: October 19, 2026

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread to an eighth province, and Kenya has confirmed an eighth case, health officials said Sunday, DW and Al Jazeera reported.

Congo’s Health Ministry said two cases, including one death, were recorded in Nord-Ubangi province, which borders the Central African Republic. “We see pockets of Ebola generally going down, but unfortunately geographically it’s spreading out,” World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Yakub Janabi told The Associated Press in Beni, eastern Congo, on Friday.

Congo has recorded at least 9,400 cases, including more than 4,500 deaths, since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, the deadliest in the country’s history. Ituri province remains the epicenter, with almost three-quarters of confirmed cases, and authorities in North Kivu are introducing a one-week ban from Monday on people entering from Ituri, the state news agency ACP reported, according to Al Jazeera. Other measures include limits on passengers in cars and on motorbikes and a suspension of large public gatherings.

In Kenya, Director-General for Health Patrick Amoth said one of 38 people tested on Sunday was positive. “He is a 49-year-old man who is not a healthcare worker. He developed fever, headache and muscle pain,” Amoth told Citizen TV.

The man worked as a patient attendant cleaning utensils and linen and was likely exposed to Kenya’s first case, a man who traveled from Congo to Nairobi and died there on Oct. 5. Amoth said patients in quarantine were being tested as they developed symptoms and that the other six patients were stable on supportive treatment.

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.

Sources: DW, Al Jazeera

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Houthi Ballistic Missiles Kill at Least 18 at a Yemeni Government Training Camp in Shabwa: October 19, 2026

ADEN, Yemen — Houthi ballistic missiles struck a government security forces training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province on Monday, killing at least 18 people, government and medical sources told Reuters, according to The National.

Tolls varied. A government military official and a medical source told China’s Xinhua news agency that at least 25 soldiers were killed and more than 30 injured, while Shabwa’s deputy governor said about 40 people were killed or wounded at the Al-Alam camp in Jardan district, Anadolu Agency reported, citing the local outlet Yemen Monitor.

The Iran-aligned Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at a center training security and police recruits, Yemeni military spokesman Majed al-Nuzaili said on X. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said the targeting of recruits reflected the Houthis’ practice of resorting to “cowardly terrorist attacks” whenever they faced pressure, and ordered authorities to respond firmly, the state Saba news agency reported.

Fighting has intensified since the Houthis advanced in September toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Government forces this month launched a campaign to recapture Houthi-held areas, while the group besieges Taiz. The Houthis have also fired dozens of drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia, including an attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport that killed 13 people, as Al Jazeera reported.

The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, has confirmed the presence of an unnamed external state actor behind the Houthis’ evolving arsenal, amid media reports of support from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which Iran and the Houthis deny.

Sources: The National, Anadolu Agency, Xinhua, Al Jazeera

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China’s Economy Beats Forecasts With 4.5% Third-Quarter Growth as AI-Driven Exports Offset a Deepening Property Slump: October 19, 2026

BEIJING — China’s economy grew 4.5% in the third quarter from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday, beating forecasts as strong exports of electronics and AI-related goods offset a deepening property slump and weak consumer spending.

Growth quickened from 4.3% in the second quarter and beat the 4.4% expansion economists polled by Reuters had expected, CNBC reported. GDP rose 1.2% from the previous quarter. Over the first nine months the economy grew 4.6%, to about 107.1 trillion yuan, putting Beijing on track for its 2026 target of 4.5% to 5% growth.

Industrial output rose 5.5% in September from a year earlier, while retail sales grew just 1.1%, and the urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2%. Fixed-asset investment fell 7.2% in the first nine months, and property investment tumbled 20.6%, according to CNBC.

Manufacturing output growth “remained robust at 6.0% year on year in September, buoyed up by stronger export demand for electronics, AI-related equipment and autos,” Duncan Wrigley, chief China economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, told The Guardian. China’s exports surged by more than a third in September, and its monthly trade surplus reached a record $133.5 billion.

Producer prices rose 5% in September, their fastest pace in more than four years, while consumer inflation remains below 1%. “It is clear that domestic imbalances between supply and demand continue rising,” said Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University.

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics, The Guardian, CNBC

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Israeli Police Arrest 10 Over Settler Attacks on a U.S. Photojournalist and European Diplomats in the West Bank: October 19, 2026

JERUSALEM — Israeli police said Monday they had arrested 10 suspects in the occupied West Bank after masked settlers attacked an American photojournalist and European diplomats last week, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported.

The unnamed suspects were detained at several locations on suspicion of acts of violence, violating a closed military zone order and illegal construction, police said, and potential evidence and vehicles were seized. Israel’s Army Radio said all of them were Israeli citizens.

On Friday, settlers beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine as she covered an olive harvest in the village of Abu Falah. She suffered four broken vertebrae, a broken rib and lacerations, and needed surgery on a finger, the BBC reported. A day later, settlers confronted a delegation of Belgian, French, Polish and Catholic Church envoys in nearby Taybeh, where French mayor Bernard Baudoux was assaulted.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee called the arrests “a very positive development in finding & punishing those who severely attacked and beat” Levine. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, however, described the incidents as “alleged” attacks amid what it called a “co-ordinated campaign to smear Israel.”

Speaking from her hospital bed, Levine told the BBC that Netanyahu’s response was “a big slap on my face” and that he should have sent a “clear message” telling settlers to end their attacks. Netanyahu’s coalition is projected to lose its governing majority in the Oct. 27 election, as Al Jazeera reported.

The Israeli rights group Yesh Din said it logged 269 incidents of violence tied to the olive harvest over the previous 20 days. Between 2005 and 2025, more than 93% of Israeli police investigations into ideologically motivated offenses by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank ended without an indictment, according to the group.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera

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Russian Ballistic Missiles Cut Power to 550,000 Ukrainian Homes as Zelenskyy Says Partners Again Gave No Warning and Rubio Denies Any Pause: October 19, 2026

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight into Monday, hitting energy facilities in and around Kyiv and cutting power to some 550,000 households, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv once again received no early warning from its partners, DW reported.

“Another Russian ballistic missile attack came in several waves overnight, and once again, there was no early warning from our partners,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. He said energy facilities and infrastructure were targeted, but a medical clinic, a school, a metro station and residential buildings were also damaged.

At least one person was killed, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine’s air force said 243 of 269 Shahed drones launched in the attack were downed or suppressed, along with four missiles. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it hit a data center, a train depot storing missiles and sites linked to drone production.

Air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat said Ukraine got no warning before a barrage hit Kyiv power plants at around 11 p.m. Sunday, though it did before a later strike at 3 a.m., The Guardian reported. Ukraine says it was not warned on at least three days in the past week.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Uzbekistan, denied any pause in U.S. intelligence sharing. “I don’t know where [Zelenskyy’s] getting these things or why he’s saying these things to the press. You should go back and ask him. There’s been no pause,” he said, as DW reported. Rubio also said that “a few nights ago there was a software problem involving their early warning system.”

The dispute follows President Donald Trump’s waiver on Friday of a sweeping package of Russia sanctions. “Zelenskyy doesn’t care,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, saying the Ukrainian leader “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”

Separately, the Kremlin said Monday that Vladimir Putin, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could potentially meet at next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, though spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no concrete proposals or agenda had been discussed, France 24 reported. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said such a meeting “would do only the opposite: encourage Putin to continue this war.”

Sources: DW, The Guardian, France 24

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