Yemen’s government says its forces have pushed into Mokha as Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan trigger their new defence pact; Quebec has elected a separatist Parti Québécois government; and a grain ship went down in Romania’s waters after what Kyiv calls a Russian drone strike. Ten stories as of Monday evening, October 5.
1. Mokha / Yemen. Yemen’s military said Monday that National Shield, Giants Brigades and Tihama Resistance forces had captured the Red Sea city of Mokha with help from Saudi air strikes, and that the Bab al-Mandab Strait was “secured,” the BBC reported — though government and military sources told Reuters and AFP the forces had only reached the city’s outskirts. Earlier the military said it had seized the Dhubab military airfield; the Saudi-led coalition said its jets had destroyed 324 “high-value” targets since the offensive began. Hours later, defence and foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan met in Riyadh and agreed to activate “collective deterrence measures” under the Mecca Alliance for Defence and rapidly deploy agreed forces to the kingdom — the first time the pact signed August 7 has been invoked, Al Jazeera reported. The Houthis claimed new attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and the Aramco refinery at Rabigh. The Guardian, with AP, noted the Houthis had just taken the town of Turbah on the approach to Taiz.
2. Montreal / Quebec, Canada. The Parti Québécois is projected to form Quebec’s next government, putting a party that promises an independence referendum back in power for the first time since 2014, The Globe and Mail reported. CTV News projects a PQ minority, with the Liberals as official Opposition; the PQ needed 64 of 127 seats for a majority and some ridings were still being counted late Monday. Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has promised a vote on Quebec’s future once U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office in 2029; with a minority he would need other parties’ support to call one. The governing Coalition Avenir Québec collapsed, and CTV said its leader, Premier Christine Fréchette, was the only major party leader to lose her seat. Éric Duhaime’s Quebec Conservatives are projected to win National Assembly seats for the first time.
3. Black Sea, off Romania. A Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying corn sank about 30 nautical miles south of Romania’s port of Sfântu Gheorghe on Monday, inside Romania’s exclusive economic zone, the BBC reported. Romania’s interior ministry said 11 crew were rescued and two people died after a fire on the Royad Mammadov; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the captain was killed in a “horrific” strike by two Russian drones. Russia did not comment directly, but its defence ministry said earlier it had struck two cargo vessels. Al Jazeera, with AP, said the crew were Azerbaijani and Indian nationals, and that the sinking adds to a run of suspected incursions on NATO’s eastern flank.
4. Irkutsk / Russia. Washington is watching a suspected plague death at a Siberian research institute. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of the case of a lab worker who may have died of plague, “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus,” and President Trump said “we’ll help,” the BBC reported. Irkutsk’s governor gave the cause of death as “pneumonia of undetermined etiology” and said no micro-organisms linked to her work had been found in her samples; Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said an inspection of the Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East found no emergency. Local media named her as 28-year-old laboratory technician Darya Shipilova, and nearly 200 contacts were placed under medical observation, Al Jazeera reported. The World Health Organization said the risk to the general public appears low.
5. Igbokoda, Ondo State / Nigeria. A Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 crashed Monday on a routine flight from Benin City to Lagos, killing all 32 people aboard — 25 passengers and seven crew. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said it went down in the riverside town of Igbokoda in Ondo State, the Associated Press reported. President Bola Tinubu confirmed there were no survivors and ordered an investigation. Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft, tail number NGR 931, at about 9:13 a.m. before it came down in a swamp, The Punch reported. Ondo Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa told Channels Television rescuers found ID cards and uniforms among the wreckage.
6. Washington / United States. President Trump has approved execution by U.S. Army firing squad for Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist sentenced to death in 2013 for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced on X, The Guardian reported. Hasan killed 13 people at the base, and he would be the first U.S. soldier executed by the military in more than 60 years. Parnell said the Secretary of the Army will set the time and place.
7. São Paulo / Brazil. Markets cheered Flávio Bolsonaro’s first-round lead. Brazil’s Bovespa index jumped 7.7 percent to a record close of 206,911.89, its biggest one-day gain since March 2020, and the real strengthened about 4.1 percent to around 5 per dollar, Reuters reported via The Straits Times. Investors bet that gains for Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress would make a pro-business agenda easier to pass if he wins the October 25 runoff against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Reuters also reported that Lula is considering Vice President Geraldo Alckmin as his next finance minister if he is re-elected. J.P. Morgan upgraded Brazilian equities to “overweight.”
8. Lens / France. France is bracing for a nationwide day of protest Tuesday in support of students demanding more school funding, after a 15-year-old boy’s hand was blown off Monday during a confrontation near a school in the northern city of Lens, the BBC reported. A week of blockades has left at least 190 students injured and more than 5,000 people arrested; officials said the boy’s injury was not life-threatening. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced measures Sunday but promised “no concessions to violence”; the students’ union USL said the government offered “nothing concrete,” and the SNES-FSU teachers’ union urged members to join in. The Guardian said thousands are expected to march.
9. Mount Bundey, Northern Territory / Australia. An Australian Army soldier was killed and five others injured in a training exercise Monday at the Mount Bundey training area, about 100 km south-east of Darwin, the defence department said, according to Guardian Australia and the ABC. Defence did not say what happened. NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said two people were flown to Darwin by helicopter about 7:30 p.m. and three more by plane about 9:30 p.m., and NT Police are assisting the investigation on behalf of the coroner.
10. Antarctica. Spain is sending a wind-powered sled across the continent’s interior. The Windsled Antarctic Expedition 2026–2027, funded by Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, will haul 16 science projects about 3,400 km from near Russia’s Novolazarevskaya station in Queen Maud Land to Italy’s Concordia station at Dome C, the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute announced Monday. The roughly 85-day crossing, on explorer Ramón Larramendi’s sled design, is billed as the first zero-emissions traverse of the continent, using solar panels to power the experiments. It will pass the Pole of Inaccessibility and Vostok station. The team is scheduled to leave Spain on October 18.
Coming Up
Confirmed dates on The Watch and in tonight’s reporting: October 6 — France’s nationwide day of student protests. October 6–9 and 12 — Nobel Prize announcements: physics, chemistry, literature, peace (Oslo), economics. October 8 — New Zealand candidate nominations close at noon. October 12–18 — IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, Bangkok. October 15–16 — European Council, Brussels.
Sources: BBC News; Al Jazeera; The Guardian; Associated Press; Reuters; AFP; The Globe and Mail; CTV News; Channels Television; The Punch; Guardian Australia; ABC News (Australia); University of Maine Climate Change Institute; U.S. Department of Defense (Sean Parnell on X).
