Donald Trump says the Starshield slowdown for Ukraine “wasn’t me” as EU leaders wrapped their Brussels summit behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Oregon police named the Silver Rail Elementary gunman and credited a teacher and a passing father with stopping him; and the new White House press secretary is out after less than five days. Ten stories as of Friday evening, October 16.
1. Washington / United States, and Kyiv / Ukraine. President Donald Trump denied limiting Ukraine’s access to Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade sister network to Starlink, telling reporters as he left the White House, “It wasn’t me and I don’t think it was Elon,” and adding he was “not sure” it “ever came down,” BBC News reported. That came hours after Zelenskyy said speeds still hadn’t been restored; Elon Musk has suggested the Pentagon could be responsible, and Reuters reported Thursday that the order came from inside the White House. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators signed a letter demanding an investigation. Zelenskyy put it bluntly on X: the service wasn’t switched off, its speed was cut, and Ukraine then couldn’t intercept some jet-powered Shahed drones. In Rome, Italy’s defense minister Guido Crosetto told the BBC that restricting Ukraine’s satellite and intelligence access would be “a complete mistake, a major mistake.”
2. Brussels / Belgium, and Rome / Italy. EU leaders ended their two-day summit closing ranks behind Zelenskyy, promising to keep sanctions on Russia for as long as the full-scale invasion goes on and condemning Trump’s diesel deal with Vladimir Putin — though Bulgaria’s prime minister broke ranks to back it, Euronews reported. Zelenskyy asked for an extra €70 billion next year, and leaders told the European Commission to come up with a way to cover it. There was no deal on the 2028–2034 budget; Council President António Costa takes over those talks ahead of a special summit he has called for November 26. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed EU states would not abandon Ukraine, per the BBC. Also Friday, Pope Leo XIV — pictured for the first time since his lung surgery and cancer diagnosis, saying Mass at a makeshift altar in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital — phoned Putin to urge a ceasefire in Russian-occupied Oleshky, where food and water have been cut off; the Kremlin said “it has been agreed to cooperate on this matter,” BBC News reported.
3. Bend / Oregon, United States. Police identified the gunman in Thursday’s attack at Silver Rail Elementary as Griffin J. John II, 16, a former special-needs student at the school who targeted a special-needs classroom, firing as many as 15 shots from a 12-gauge shotgun and carrying about 44 more rounds, Al Jazeera and the BBC reported. A teacher threw her phone at him, then tackled him and fought for the gun; Police Chief Mike Krantz said she “almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.” Family members identified the man who ran in with a legally concealed .40-caliber pistol from his vehicle and shot the teen as Kaylub Giamanco, 36, a carpenter with two daughters at the school; police haven’t confirmed his name. Two victims were named: Rhoam Summer, 5, and teacher Meghan Lambert, 25. Police are still working out how the teen got the shotgun; the motive isn’t clear.
4. Washington / United States. Katie Zacharia is leaving the White House press secretary job after less than five days, the BBC confirmed, hours after Trump told reporters, “honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider.” Her first briefing Tuesday lasted 14 minutes with three questions, and on Thursday she acknowledged she had not passed a bar exam after being described as an attorney. It is the quickest exit on any Trump press team; Anthony Scaramucci lasted 10 days as communications director in the first term. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries posted that “MAGA extremists continue to fall apart.”
5. Aden / Yemen. A day after the deadly strike on the presidential palace, two Houthi missiles landed near the runway at Aden International Airport, about 500 meters from a plane preparing to take off; all passengers and crew were safe, Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said, per Al Jazeera. The Houthis said they hit a Saudi forces command headquarters and a weapons depot in Aden province. Government forces claimed “territorial gains” in eastern Marib province, and the Saudi-led coalition said it downed missiles and drones over Riyadh. Iran’s foreign ministry denied any role in Houthi operations.
6. Nairobi / Kenya. Kenya confirmed its third case of Bundibugyo-strain Ebola — a 65-year-old woman, a close relative of the first two patients, who has been in quarantine since October 6 — and said there is no sign of community spread, Al Jazeera reported. The Health Ministry said 127 of 130 listed contacts have been traced and quarantined, and that the country has no restrictions on travel, trade or gatherings. Next door in Congo, the outbreak has passed 9,000 cases and 4,300 deaths since May, and the Africa CDC says more than $700 million in donor money for the response is unaccounted for.
7. New Delhi / India. Police detained Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party, as hundreds gathered at Connaught Place to demand the resignation of India’s election chief, BBC News reported. Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel sealed off Central Park, the planned rally site. It was Dipke’s second detention in under a week, and with co-leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka jailed for five days on Wednesday, all three of the movement’s main leaders are in custody. The party accuses the Election Commission of manipulating voter lists to favor the ruling BJP; both deny it.
8. São Paulo / Brazil. Internal Meta messages reviewed by Folha de S.Paulo acknowledge that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Instagram accounts were hit by restrictions during the campaign while the platform recommended challenger Flávio Bolsonaro’s profile and WhatsApp channel, Al Jazeera reported, citing the paper. Meta told Reuters the technical issues were already public and that “any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false.” On Thursday a judge on Brazil’s top electoral court ordered Meta to treat both candidates equally or pay 500,000 reais a day. The runoff is October 25.
9. Southwest of Acapulco / Mexico. Hurricane Trudy lost its eye and weakened unexpectedly, to 85 mph (140 km/h) at 6 p.m. CST Friday, about 220 miles southwest of Acapulco, and the National Hurricane Center no longer expects it to be a major hurricane at the coast. The center should approach southwestern and west-central Mexico Saturday and pass near the coast Saturday night into Sunday. A Hurricane Warning runs from Manzanillo north to Cabo Corrientes. Forecasters still warn of 4 to 8 inches of rain, locally 15, in Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco, with life-threatening floods and mudslides possible.
10. Hagåtña / Guam, and Suwarrow / Cook Islands. Tropical Storm Champi is strengthening fast and could be a Category 3 typhoon when it passes just south of Guam on Sunday morning local time, with gusts near 249 km/h, up to 20 inches of rain and 35-foot surf forecast, the U.S. National Weather Service said, according to RNZ Pacific. Guam and Rota are under Typhoon Warnings; Governor Lourdes Leon Guerrero raised Guam to Condition of Readiness 2, and the Northern Marianas declared a significant emergency. Far to the southeast, the depression we flagged this morning became Tropical Cyclone Wati, a Category 1 storm near Suwarrow — the region’s first cyclone, two weeks before the season officially begins, RNZ reported.
Coming Up
Confirmed dates on The Watch: the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok wrap up October 18. October 19, Alberta votes on whether to move toward a binding independence referendum. October 25, Brazil’s presidential runoff (Flávio Bolsonaro vs Lula). The Brussels summit is now in the books, and the board notes the special EU budget summit set for November 26. Full list at the link.
