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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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Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel Leave Five Dead in Mexico as Helicopters Pluck 32 People From a Flooded Baja California Ranch: October 13, 2026

ENSENADA, Mexico — At least five people have died in Mexico after Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel lashed the country’s Pacific coast with flooding that swept away vehicles, downed power poles and inundated homes, The Guardian and CBC News reported.

In Baja California, the bodies of four people, including two children, were recovered in Ensenada after Rachel’s floodwaters tore through the coastal city. Six people remained missing, four in Ensenada and a father and son from San Felipe who went fishing Saturday, state civil protection coordinator Ignacio Lozoya said Monday evening, according to CBC.

Mexican military helicopters rescued 32 people, 22 of them foreigners, from a ranch in Ensenada, Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila said. A state security official said some were missionaries, including Germans and Americans. “We heard a loud noise that sounded like ocean waves, but really loud,” resident Johana Nuriulu said, according to CBC. About 14,000 federal and state personnel have been deployed across the state, the governor said.

Farther south, a 71-year-old man died when a wall collapsed in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, Gov. Evelyn Salgado said; Simon also damaged infrastructure in coastal towns including Acapulco, The Guardian reported. The hurricane has not made landfall. As of 5 a.m. MST Tuesday, Simon was a small Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 90 mph, about 95 miles west of Cabo Corrientes and creeping west-northwest at 3 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane warning is in effect for Las Islas Marías and a hurricane watch from north of Escuinapa to Bahía Tempehuaya.

Rachel weakened into a post-tropical cyclone as it moved into Southern California, where unusually large waves tore apart a boardwalk in Long Beach, and its remnants caused weekend flooding in Las Vegas. Meteorologists say the strong El Niño is fueling more intense hurricanes in the eastern Pacific this season, The Guardian said.

Sources: The Guardian, CBC News, U.S. National Hurricane Center

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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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Clashes Between Rival Communities Kill About 70 in South Sudan’s Rumbek, Overwhelming a Hospital Weeks Before Elections: October 13, 2026

JUBA, South Sudan — Fighting between armed youths from rival communities in central South Sudan killed about 70 people, including four soldiers, and overwhelmed the main hospital in Rumbek with gunshot victims, officials said, according to The Associated Press and Radio Tamazuj.

The violence swept through the Rumbek area of Lakes state on Friday as government soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers tried to keep order. South Sudan’s Information Ministry said about 71 people were killed, according to a preliminary report, but that the exact toll was unverified, Radio Tamazuj reported. The four soldiers killed included a captain, the ministry said.

“We were overwhelmed with the gunshot patients,” Teran Madit, a clinical officer at Rumbek State Hospital, told the AP. He said the hospital received more than 50 wounded people, most with chest injuries, and that some left again amid rumors they could be killed there. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Nepalese peacekeepers deployed a rapid response force to help protect the hospital and humanitarian compounds.

The fighting pitted armed youths of the Pakam community in Rumbek North County against those of the Nyang community in Rumbek Central County, both part of the Dinka ethnic group. Disputes over cattle and grazing land, along with revenge killings, have fueled repeated violence in Lakes state, though the immediate cause was unclear. The government said troops and police had brought Rumbek under control, arrested four armed civilians and urged communities to avoid retaliation.

The bloodshed comes as South Sudan prepares for its first national elections since independence in 2011, now scheduled for Dec. 22. President Salva Kiir dissolved the transitional government on Sept. 22 and appointed a caretaker administration. Analyst Machot Amuom told the AP that the dissolution left key local posts vacant. “The caretaker county commissioners have not yet been appointed, and the armed youths took advantage of it,” he said.

Sources: The Associated Press (via ABC News), Radio Tamazuj

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Former Congo President Joseph Kabila Takes the Helm of a New Rebel Coalition With M23, Vowing to End ‘Tyranny’ by Force if Needed: October 13, 2026

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Former Congolese President Joseph Kabila has been named leader of a new political and military coalition that includes the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and aims to oust the government in Kinshasa, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported Tuesday.

The Front for the Refoundation of the Nation, or FRN, was unveiled Monday at a news conference at Kabila’s residence in Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, which M23 has held since January 2025. Coalition adviser Claude Ibalanky said the group would unite “resistance forces” to put an end to “tyranny” “by any means necessary, including the use of force,” according to Al Jazeera.

The BBC said M23 military leader Sultani Makenga is one of Kabila’s four deputies, all drawn from the AFC-M23 alliance, and Al Jazeera said Corneille Nangaa, who led the Congo River Alliance, is also among them. The unveiling is the clearest sign yet of Kabila’s direct involvement in an armed movement, a year after a military court sentenced him to death in absentia for treason; he had previously denied links to M23, the BBC reported. Kabila calls the case politically motivated.

There was no immediate response from the government of President Félix Tshisekedi. “You don’t make an announcement like this without having prepared the actions that follow,” Yvon Muya, a researcher at the University of Ottawa, told Al Jazeera. “We will likely witness an escalation on the military front.” Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Goma said there were fears government soldiers could defect to Kabila, a former army chief.

Kabila, 55, ruled Congo from 2001 until January 2019. Government and M23 representatives had been expected to meet in Qatar in November, and analysts warned the new coalition could undermine that process. The United Nations and Western governments accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which Rwanda denies. Tshisekedi’s second term ends in 2028, and parliament has passed a bill that could pave the way for a referendum on removing the constitution’s two-term limit, the BBC said.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera

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MI5 Chief Calls Russia ‘Aggressor Number One’ and Warns Iran Is Eyeing Military Sites as State Threats Match Terrorism in Scale: October 13, 2026

LONDON — The head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service said Tuesday that MI5 is now devoting more resources to countering hostile states than it did during the Cold War, naming Russia “aggressor number one” and warning that Iran has set its sights on “harder targets, like military sites,” BBC News and The Guardian reported.

In his annual threat update at MI5’s Thames House headquarters, Director General Sir Ken McCallum said threats from foreign states had quadrupled over the last decade, so that “our terrorism and state threats operational missions are pretty much of equal scale.” He said Russia was waging hybrid warfare while avoiding a joint NATO response, a line the Kremlin would be “foolish to cross.”

“With its traditional covert footprint eviscerated by almost 1,000 expulsions since the invasion, the Kremlin’s global toolkit is weak. So we see them scrambling to pay criminals to do their bidding,” McCallum said, according to the BBC. “These are not the actions of a great power with the strategic upper hand.” He also said Moscow had tried to interfere in the 2016 Brexit referendum through RT, Sputnik and troll accounts, but that there was a big difference between “what may have been attempted and what actually resulted,” The Guardian reported.

MI5’s counter-Iran work led to more than 50 arrests in the past year, McCallum said, with much of the activity aimed at British Jewish communities. He did not directly address the arrests at RAF Fairford, which Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said were linked to a plot “almost certainly directed” by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, but said that “those who seek to cause mayhem on British streets — whether hired thugs here or their paymasters overseas — will meet an unflinching response.”

On terrorism, McCallum said “the most marked trend has been an increase in cases where extremist versions of anti-immigration and anti-Muslim grievance are tipping into terrorist intent,” and that MI5 had recently investigated a radicalized 13-year-old. He said the service had “caught terrorists seeking to exploit AI to improve their reconnaissance and attack methodologies, with AI-enabled drones adding a new twist,” and that his greatest worry was AI helping extremists build bioweapons — a threat “not yet realised.” The Guardian said he announced a new AI threat assessment centre. Britain’s terrorism threat level was raised to severe in April.

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian

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Drones Sink a Cargo Ship Off Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast, Leaving 11 Sailors Missing, as Sofia Summons Russia’s Ambassador: October 13, 2026

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Drones struck two merchant ships just outside Bulgaria’s territorial waters in the Black Sea early Tuesday, sinking one and leaving 11 of its crew missing, and Prime Minister Rumen Radev summoned Russia’s ambassador over the attacks, BBC News, Al Jazeera and CBC News reported.

The Maltese-flagged, Ukrainian-owned Chelsea 3 was hit by three aerial drones about 18 nautical miles off the Bulgarian coast at around 1:30 a.m. local time, Radev said. All 15 of its crew, seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis, were rescued, and five were treated for minor injuries. The second vessel sank about 17 nautical miles east of the village of Krapets. One sailor from that ship was saved, the BBC said, and Bulgarian media identified it as the cargo ship Azov Concord, according to CBC.

“Another attack on merchant ships in the immediate vicinity of Bulgarian territorial waters is absolutely unacceptable,” Radev said after an emergency meeting of the country’s Security Council. He said there was no conclusive evidence of who was responsible, but that “logic suggests that the outcome benefits the Russian Federation.” Russia’s ambassador, Eleonora Mitrofanova, was later quoted by Bulgarian media as saying she had no information from Russia’s defence ministry about the attacks and that they could have been a provocation by a third party, the BBC reported.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the strikes. “The Black Sea has become another front of escalation of the Russian war in Ukraine. This is unacceptable,” she wrote on X.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who spoke with Radev, said the alliance had “already strengthened our posture along the eastern flank and will continue to monitor the security environment, adjusting our deterrence and defence posture as needed.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha blamed Moscow directly. “The Black Sea is a lifeline for global food security. Russia is attacking it to weaponise hunger and hold the world hostage,” he said. Russia’s military had not commented.

The attacks came exactly a week after drones hit two other ships in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone on Oct. 6. One of them, the Alfa Watan, sank, and all 10 of its crew are presumed dead, the BBC said. DW reported that at least 45 merchant vessels have been struck by drones in the Black Sea in the past 12 months. Had Tuesday’s strikes happened a few nautical miles farther west, inside Bulgarian waters, NATO’s Article 5 collective-defense clause could have come into play, the BBC noted.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera, CBC News, DW

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World Brief, Evening: October 12, 2026

Riyadh took Houthi fire for a third straight night while Saudi officials try to work out how the missiles got through; Kyiv says Moscow has answered President Trump’s “energy ceasefire” with more strikes; and Britain pinned last month’s RAF Fairford scare on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Ten stories as of Monday evening, October 12.

1. Riyadh / Saudi Arabia. Explosions shook the Saudi capital again Monday night, and the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh and two more aimed at Khamis Mushait in the southwest; the Houthis said their target was King Khalid International Airport, Al Jazeera reported. The airport, closed since Saturday’s strike that killed 13, is expected to stay shut until this Saturday. Saudi authorities have opened an investigation into why the kingdom’s air defences failed; an initial inquiry found the Houthis sent drones first to clear a path for a mix of cruise and ballistic missiles that flew more than 1,000 km, two regional officials told the AP. Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told an energy congress in Riyadh, “Our response must be equally serious,” and Qatar Airways suspended flights to Riyadh and Dammam, BBC News reported. Asked what he’d do, President Trump said, “The Houthis are misbehaving very badly. No good,” without signalling U.S. action; a Houthi official warned of a “swift and painful response” against U.S. interests if Washington joins in.

2. Kyiv / Ukraine and Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has hit six Ukrainian energy facilities since Trump announced the energy truce Sunday, injuring 33 people, and calls it proof Moscow is “unwilling to accept an energy ceasefire,” BBC News reported. Ukrenergo reported new power cuts in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine doesn’t deserve the “respite” a ceasefire would bring. The Kremlin’s only official word was Dmitry Peskov’s “Contacts are continuing,” while pro-Kremlin media called the truce “a one-way deal that benefits us,” BBC News reported. Trump said both sides agreed “because I said you agree.” Monday evening a Shahed drone hit a high-rise in Kyiv; Zelenskyy said two people were killed and nine hurt, after Mayor Vitali Klitschko had first reported one dead and 11 injured.

3. London / United Kingdom and Iran. Prime Minister Andy Burnham told MPs the suspected plot at RAF Fairford, the U.S.-used base in Gloucestershire, was “almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” and Britain sanctioned two Iranians: Ruhollah Bazghandi, head of IRGC counterespionage, and Shahram Ali Reza Tamarzadeh Jakki, described as a facilitator for the Zindashti criminal network, Al Jazeera reported. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband summoned Iran’s ambassador, who said Tehran wasn’t involved and would cooperate. Seven men have been arrested and bailed over the September 27 incident and none has been charged; the UK and 28 other countries, including the U.S., issued a joint statement condemning Iranian “lethal plotting, arson, sabotage,” BBC News reported.

4. Warsaw / Poland and Germany. Two Turkish citizens have been detained in Germany over a fire last month at a Starlink station in Poland’s Masovia region, and Warsaw says they’ll face sabotage charges for acting on the orders of a foreign intelligence service, Al Jazeera reported. “We have no doubt that Russian services are behind this act of sabotage,” said Special Services Minister Tomasz Siemoniak; Poland pays for Ukraine’s Starlink service. At the Warsaw Security Forum the same day, NATO’s top commander, U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, said any attack on an ally would prove “utterly futile” and NATO would hit “anything and everything” that supports an attacking force, per Al Jazeera.

5. Bangkok / Thailand, and Australia. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook, released at the Bangkok annual meetings, warns the global economy “could soon test the limits of resilience” as emergency oil stocks run low and budgets stretch thin, The Guardian reported. It nudged 2026 global growth up to 3.1% from 3.0%, left 2027 at 3.4%, and sees global inflation at 4.7% this year and 4.1% next. A downside scenario, with the war dragging through June 2027 and Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb largely shut, has oil at $130 a barrel; economists told Guardian Australia that could add about 30 cents a litre to Australian petrol.

6. Adwa / Ethiopia. Ethiopian federal troops and an allied militia entered the Tigray town of Adwa, about 40 km from the Eritrean border, on Sunday without a fight after TPLF fighters pulled out, residents said, Al Jazeera reported. It follows the capture of Adigrat and last week’s fall of Mekelle, where Ethiopian Airlines flights resumed Sunday for the first time since September 23. One resident told AFP government offices and Adwa Hospital were looted overnight. Eritrea, accused by Addis Ababa of backing the rebels, cut diplomatic ties last week.

7. Goma / DR Congo. Former President Joseph Kabila will lead a new political-military movement with the Rwanda-backed M23, which has held Goma since January 2025, the two sides announced at a joint news conference at his Goma residence, France 24 reported, citing AFP. Kabila, who ruled from 2001 to 2019, was sentenced to death in absentia a year ago for “complicity” with M23. The move lands as President Félix Tshisekedi’s camp floats constitutional changes ahead of the end of his final term in 2028.

8. Washington / United States. Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home in the Washington area under a court-approved warrant as part of “an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” the Justice Department said, BBC News reported. Omar called it political intimidation: “I will not be silenced.” Trump said he had “nothing to do” with it and called her “a terrible person.” Fox News reported the probe involves immigration paperwork her late father filed when she was a child. House Democratic leaders called the raid “deeply disturbing,” coming less than 30 days before the midterms, The Guardian reported.

9. Jalisco, Guerrero and Baja California / Mexico. Simon is down to 100 mph, a Category 2, about 80 miles west of Cabo Corrientes and 205 miles south of Mazatlán at 5 p.m. MST, creeping west-northwest at 3 mph and expected to turn northwest tonight, with flooding rains still hitting the coast, the National Hurricane Center said. At least two people are dead: a 71-year-old man killed by a collapsing wall near Chilpancingo, Guerrero, during Simon, and a young girl in Baja California from what was Hurricane Rachel, with 10 missing there, Al Jazeera reported. Forecasters say Simon could make landfall Thursday or Friday.

10. La Paz and Santa Cruz / Bolivia. Bolivia’s acting attorney general, José Armando Urioste, opened a preliminary investigation into former President Evo Morales and his vice president Álvaro García Linera over a 2009 police raid on a Santa Cruz hotel that killed three Europeans and left two others reporting torture, The Guardian reported. The alleged crimes include murder, torture and unlawful detention. Morales, who called the men “mercenaries” at the time, is already in hiding from two arrest warrants; neither he nor García Linera has commented.

Coming Up

Confirmed dates on The Watch and beyond: October 13, Pope Leo XIV checks into Rome’s Gemelli hospital for lung-nodule surgery, with audiences cancelled until October 20, Al Jazeera reported. Through October 18, the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, with G20 finance ministers there October 15. October 15–16, the European Council in Brussels. October 17, the earliest Riyadh’s King Khalid airport is expected to reopen. October 19, Alberta’s referendum on whether to move toward a binding independence vote.

Sources: Al Jazeera; BBC News; AP; The Guardian; Guardian Australia; France 24; U.S. National Hurricane Center.

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.

Melbourne Imam ‘Strongly Rejects’ UAE Claims Linking His Islamic Centre to the Accused Flydubai Hijacker: October 12, 2026

MELBOURNE, Australia — The leader of a Melbourne Islamic centre named by prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates in their case against the co-pilot accused of trying to crash a flydubai jet has rejected any link to the suspect, saying he never met him, ABC News (Australia), The Guardian and Al Jazeera reported.

“I strongly reject any attempt to associate me or [the] Multicultural Youth Centre with Al-Hammami,” Samir Mohtadi, who is also known as Abu Hamza, said in a written statement. “Such claims are unfounded, misleading and risk unfairly damaging the reputation of an organisation that has served the wider Australian community for decades.” He added: “The relevant authorities should have verified these claims with me before releasing or publishing such information.”

“I have never met Al-Hammami … and we have no record of him ever attending our centre,” Mohtadi said, according to The Guardian. Neither he nor the centre, known as MyCentre, in the Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows, has been accused of any criminal wrongdoing. In a four-minute video posted Sunday, before the statement, he said that “the best thing sometimes is not to say anything.”

UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said last week that the 29-year-old suspect, widely reported to be Omani national Hamam Al-Hammami, began to “drift towards extremism and terrorism” in 2017 while studying at RMIT University in Melbourne, and became acquainted with people associated with the centre, ABC reported. Emirati prosecutors allege that on the Sept. 30 flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, he attacked the plane’s captain with an emergency axe, aiming to crash it into Ben Gurion Airport, before another pilot, a cabin crew member and passengers restrained him, Al Jazeera reported.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has said the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, made up of the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and ASIO, is investigating the suspect’s links to Australia, and police and intelligence services in New Zealand, where he did some of his flight training, are also investigating, according to ABC and Al Jazeera.

Sources: ABC News (Australia), The Guardian, Al Jazeera

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