World Brief: October 29, 2026

Leaked audio puts Spain’s train disaster on a control-room order; Israel starts counting soldiers’ ballots; Washington tells Gulf allies to brace while Vance writes to Tehran; a drone hits a crowded platform in Dnipro; the ECB holds as Lagarde names her exit date; and Typhoon In-fa bears down on the northern Marianas. Ten stories as of Thursday morning, October 29.

1. Mora and Orgaz / Spain. The death toll from Wednesday’s high-speed collision south of Madrid has risen to at least 69. Now audio published by El País and RTVE suggests why it happened, the BBC reports. After a computer failure halted six trains, a control-centre operator cleared the Renfe driver to carry on “at normal speed with normal operation.” The driver asked, “At normal speed?” The answer was “Yes.” A stationary Iryo train was sitting on the line ahead. Transport Minister Óscar Puente has already said the trains were let go without speed limits “under inexplicable circumstances.” Spain began three days of national mourning on Thursday, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has promised a full investigation, says DW. The opposition’s Alberto Núñez Feijóo says Spaniards “are asking tough questions that demand answers,” a month before the November 29 election.

2. Jerusalem / Israel. With 97% of votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc has 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc has 48, and Arab-led parties are on course for an unprecedented 19, the BBC reports. Nobody is near 61. Counting began Thursday on up to 480,000 absentee ballots, mostly from soldiers, and President Isaac Herzog expects official results next week. Meanwhile Likud figures are calling the vote “stolen” and pointing to reports of foreign-funded turnout. The Central Elections Committee chair has asked for an investigation, while police sources call the claims baseless, ABC News reports. Qatar, named in Israeli media reports, called the accusations “ridiculous and dangerous.”

3. Washington, Tehran and the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. has told Middle East allies to prepare for possible renewed military action against Iran after next Tuesday’s midterms, and for Iranian retaliation against energy sites, two diplomats told AP. President Trump has not made a final decision. At the same time, Vice President JD Vance sent a letter through Qatari mediators to Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. According to U.S. media reports summarised by Al Jazeera, it proposes direct talks with the nuclear programme on the table from the start. In the strait, a ship was reported on fire 9 nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say three tankers hit sea mines in 24 hours and claim another U.S. drone was shot down, per DW. The Pentagon puts the war’s cost so far at $47.1 billion.

4. Dnipro / Ukraine. A Russian jet-powered drone hit a crowded platform at Dnipro’s main railway station on Thursday, killing at least 14 people and wounding at least 14 more, including an 11-year-old boy, the BBC reports. A passenger train bound for Zaporizhzhia was standing at the platform. Railway chief Oleksandr Pertsovsky said an elevated threat level had been announced, “but unfortunately there were still a large number of people on the platform.” In Chernihiv, a missile strike killed two 15-year-old girls. President Zelensky called for more U.S., European and G7 sanctions. Further south, the local truce around Oleshky was holding into a third day, and Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman says he is travelling there via Belarus and Russia, per DW.

5. Frankfurt / Eurozone. The European Central Bank kept its deposit rate at 2.5% on Thursday. It warned that rising energy prices pose “upside risks to the inflation outlook and downside risks to the growth outlook,” and it did not commit to any rate path, according to the ECB statement. Eurozone inflation is running at 3.8%, close to double the target. Hours earlier, Christine Lagarde said she will step down on February 7, 2027, about nine months before her term ends. That lets EU leaders choose her successor before France’s presidential election, AP notes. Spain’s Pablo Hernández de Cos and the Netherlands’ Klaas Knot are seen as frontrunners, says Euronews.

6. Montreal / Canada. The two-day EU–Canada summit opened Thursday. Ursula von der Leyen said the “associate membership” she has floated for Canada would be a partnership that “comes close to membership,” the BBC reports. The member states aren’t all on board. Germany’s Friedrich Merz and other leaders had the term struck from the draft declaration, which now calls for “closer ties” without membership and is expected to be published Friday, DW reports. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said Canada and Europe are “stronger together” in an age of “geopolitical rupture.”

7. Florida / Brazil. From the United States, Flávio Bolsonaro has posted a letter calling himself “leader of Brazil.” A deleted earlier version said “rightful president.” He says, without evidence, that he was the victim of “electoral fraud” and that he will lead the opposition from abroad, the BBC reports. His complaint is about Sunday’s extension of polling hours, which both campaigns requested. A BBC Brazil and BBC Verify analysis found only about 34,000 people voted in the extra time, against Lula’s winning margin of 4.4 million. Bolsonaro left Brazil after ignoring an order to surrender his passports.

8. Addis Ababa and Moscow / Ethiopia. Ethiopia has received 12 Russian Su-35 fighter jets and plans to acquire four S-400 air-defence systems, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced at the Russia–Africa Summit in Moscow, the BBC reports. The deal comes as fighting intensifies in Tigray, on the border with Eritrea. Abiy called it a “milestone” and said, “If we fail to build this capability, surviving as a country in our region will become difficult.” Analysts say it strengthens Moscow’s foothold in the Horn of Africa, per Al Jazeera.

9. Seoul / South Korea. At an appeal hearing in the Seoul High Court on Thursday, special prosecutors again asked for the death penalty for former President Yoon Suk-yeol, Al Jazeera reports. Yoon was sentenced to life in February for leading an insurrection with his December 2024 martial-law declaration. A prosecutor said there was “no reason to hesitate.” South Korea still has the death penalty but hasn’t carried out an execution since 1997. Yoon’s lawyers say he meant to warn an opposition-controlled parliament, not to set up authoritarian rule.

10. Northern Mariana Islands and Antarctica. Typhoon In-fa is a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds, heading west-northwest toward the far northern Marianas. A typhoon warning is in effect for Alamagan, Pagan and Agrihan, and the center is forecast to pass close to Agrihan Friday afternoon or evening local time, according to the National Weather Service in Guam. Governor David Apatang has raised the three islands to Typhoon Condition II, per the NMI News Service. Far to the south, oceanographer Sylvia Earle is calling for an end to krill fishing near Antarctica. The U.S., China, Russia and 24 other governments are negotiating a possible deal that would dramatically expand the catch, AP reports. The Antarctic fisheries commission (CCAMLR) wraps up its annual meeting in Hobart on Friday.