Yemen

• Yemen’s Saudi-backed government announces operation to retake Sana’a: Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced Monday the launch of a military and security operation dubbed “Dawn of Yemen,” aimed at retaking the capital Sana’a from Ansarallah and restoring control over state institutions.
  • “The Dawn of Yemen operation has begun to restore state institutions, liberate the capital Sana’a, and end the Houthi coup,” Al-Alimi said, a day after announcing the start of military operations to “restore the remaining territory of the Republic and extend state authority nationwide.”
  • Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansarallah’s political bureau, dismissed Al-Alimi’s announcement, saying “the war today is between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.” He said Saudi aircraft were bombing Yemen while Ansarallah forces were responding “with missiles and drones deep inside Saudi territory,” adding that “it is the Saudi regime that controls the mercenary forces, not Rashad al-Alimi.”

• Saudi-led coalition deploys 100 warplanes as Yemeni forces launch offensive: The Saudi-led coalition said Monday that 100 fighter jets were taking part in “Operation Dawn of Yemen,” providing round-the-clock air support to Saudi-backed Yemeni forces and air cover over the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
  • Coalition spokesperson claimed 324 “high-value” targets had been destroyed since the operation began. The coalition’s intervention follows overnight Saudi-backed strikes on Sana’a and the northern province of Saada.
  • On the ground, Saudi-backed forces claimed Monday to have taken large parts of Dhubab district overlooking Bab al-Mandab. They also claimed control of the Dhubab airstrip and key positions around the strait, while Ansarallah-aligned media denied that Saudi-backed forces had advanced. Reuters reported that fighting remained under way in the area.
  • Elsewhere, Saudi-backed forces claimed gains in southern Taiz. The military claimed it had carried out 1,122 attacks across Saada, Al-Jawf, Taiz and the western coast, killing or otherwise “neutralizing” 1,747 Ansarallah fighters. The figures could not be independently verified.
  • Ansarallah said Sunday it had launched ballistic missiles and drones at Aramco facilities in Riyadh and Khurais, causing major fires. It said the strikes were retaliation for 50 Saudi airstrikes and missiles over the previous 12 hours on Sana’a, al-Jawf, Taiz, Amran, Hajjah, and Saada.
• U.S. gives Saudi Arabia over 200 Ansarallah targets but holds off on direct strikes: The U.S. military provided Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting data for its operations against Ansarallah in Yemen, including more than 200 targets over the past two weeks, a U.S. official told Axios.
  • Washington has twice rejected recent Saudi requests to directly join the fighting.
  • Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman again asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday for U.S. airstrikes to support a planned Saudi-backed operation in Yemen, but a U.S. official said Washington “is not going to take kinetic action for now.”
  • President Donald Trump also held off on ordering strikes against Ansarallah last week after a request from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
  • CENTCOM has raised concerns that direct U.S. involvement in Yemen would divert attention and resources from Iran, according to a U.S. official.
  • U.S. officials said Washington is currently providing Saudi Arabia with support short of direct combat, but direct U.S. military action could still be considered if the Saudi-backed operation runs into difficulties.
• Aramco CEO says rebuilding global oil stocks could take two years: Replenishing global oil inventories while meeting demand could take “up to two years,” as disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz continue amid the war with Iran, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said Monday.
  • “The world entered the crisis with oil inventories of around 10 billion barrels” and has since “lost nearly 3 billion barrels” of oil supply, Nasser said, adding that roughly half the crude and refined products normally shipped through Hormuz have been lost. “Less than 6 billion barrels of commercial inventories remain, and most of them are practically unavailable.”
  • “Emergency reserves may get us through the winter, but they do not solve the supply problem in the long term,” Nasser said, warning pressure would continue “until the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens and confidence returns.”
  • Aramco is considering additional crude export routes and overseas storage, Nasser said. “If we are asked to provide 12 million barrels per day, we can provide it within days.”

Iran

• U.S. bombers withdrawn from RAF Fairford: The U.S. abruptly removed all U.S. long-range bombers deployed to the RAF Fairford airbase in England and returned them to their U.S. home stations over the weekend. The move, which was not explained, comes days after British authorities arrested several individuals over what the officials have claimed was an Iranian plot targeting the base.
  • Fairford has served as a forward operating location for U.S. Global Strike Command and hosted B-1 bombers used in the war against Iran.
• Middle East crude exports surpass pre-Iran war levels: Crude exports from the Middle East exceeded pre-war levels on four of the final seven days of September, reaching 19.5 million to 22.5 million barrels per day (bpd), according to provisional data from ship-tracking firm Kpler reported by Reuters via Al Jazeera. Before the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, exports averaged about 18 million bpd.
  • The seven-day average for crude exports stood at 18.5 million bpd on October 1, while combined flows of crude, refined products, chemicals and other non-gas liquids averaged 22.4 million bpd in the seven days through September 30.
  • IRGC commander Ali Fadavi disputed the scale of traffic Sunday, saying only “three to four million barrels” of oil were moving through the route each day and describing that volume as “negligible” compared with pre-war levels.
  • Kpler’s figures include Strait of Hormuz transits, Red Sea flows, terminal exports, and ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman, but exclude vessels traveling with their tracking transponders switched off.

• IRGC orders tanker to turn back in Strait of Hormuz after string of attacks: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ordered an inbound tanker in the Strait of Hormuz to turn back on Monday, warning that the vessel would otherwise be targeted, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations. The tanker complied with the order, which was issued about 11 nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman.
  • The incident follows three consecutive days of attacks on tankers in and around the Strait. On Sunday, a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile that damaged its engine room. On Saturday, a crude oil tanker was hit on its port side by an unknown projectile four nautical miles east of Oman. On Friday, another tanker was struck during an outbound transit, causing a small fire and blackout before the vessel resumed its journey.
  • No casualties or environmental impacts were reported in any of the three attacks.

• Iran summons Norwegian ambassador over Starlink operations: Iran summoned Norway’s ambassador in Tehran on Sunday and lodged a formal protest over Oslo’s failure to stop unauthorized Starlink operations inside Iran.
  • Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. and Israel of using Starlink to advance an “interventionist and divisive agenda” in Iran and criticized Norway for taking no effective action despite repeated requests from Tehran.
• Iraq to resume direct flights to Iran on Thursday: Iraqi Airways will resume direct flights to Iran on October 8, Iraq’s Transport Ministry announced Monday.
  • The new schedule will include daily flights between Najaf International Airport and Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan.
  • Iraq halted flights to and from Iran on September 25 in line with U.S. sanctions and subsequently sought exemptions for pilgrimage, medical and educational travel. Reuters reported that the U.S. Treasury exemption for Iraqi Airways runs for one month, with a more permanent arrangement potentially to follow.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded in Gaza: Over the past 24 hours, five Palestinians were killed—three in new Israeli attacks and two due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks—and 26 injured across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. One body was also recovered.
  • The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 74,243 killed, with 175,232 injured. Since October 11, 2025, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,460 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 5,116, while 836 bodies have been recovered.
  • 181 Palestinians were added to the cumulative death toll after their data was completed and verified, the Ministry noted.
• Israeli attacks kill 15 across Gaza since Saturday: One Palestinian was killed and more than five others were wounded, including two children, on Monday in an Israeli drone strike on the southern Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, according to WAFA.
  • Several Palestinians were wounded, including one critically, when an Israeli drone struck near the Taiba Towers west of Khan Younis.
  • In northern Gaza, a woman was shot in the head by Israeli naval forces in the Al-Sudaniya area northwest of Gaza City. Another woman was wounded by Israeli quadcopter fire in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.
  • On Saturday, Israeli attacks killed nine Palestinians, including four women and a child, across Gaza.
  • An Israeli airstrike on the Al-Asala building in western Gaza City killed five people: two Palestinian Christian women, an elderly woman and her daughter, and one man.
  • Five Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Strip on Sunday.
• Israeli forces kill worker, settlers attack olive harvesters across the occupied West Bank:
  • Hebron: Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian worker and wounded two others, one critically, near the entrance to Bani Naim, southeast of Hebron, on Monday, according to WAFA.
    • Israeli settlers chased ten workers near Khirbet Huwara, east of Yatta, firing into the air and severely beating several of them.
    • Israeli forces also demolished a 140-square-meter home sheltering two families in Al-Deirat, east of Yatta, along with a water well, tent and sheep pens.
  • Jenin: Three Palestinians were injured when settlers attacked olive harvesters in the Khirbet Amriha and Al-Makhal areas, southwest of Jenin. A 42-year-old man suffered a broken leg, another man was injured in his left hand, and an elderly man was beaten and pepper-sprayed, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
  • Ramallah: Settlers stole harvested olives and damaged trees in Umm Safa and Al-Mazra’a Al-Gharbiya, northwest of Ramallah, with the latter attack taking place under Israeli military protection. Settlers also attacked olive harvesters in Al-Taybeh, east of Ramallah.
    • Israeli forces separately raided Birzeit University with a military bulldozer, demolished and seized a memorial bearing the names of students killed by Israeli forces, and detained a university security guard.
  • Nablus: Settlers continued stealing olives from Palestinian farmland in Beita, south of Nablus. In Burqa, northwest of Nablus, settlers attacked farmers harvesting olives in the Bab Al-Jamea area, prevented them from continuing their work and stole a tractor.
    • Six Palestinian families returned to their homes in Tal, southwest of Nablus, after Israeli forces had forced them to leave the houses for more than two months.
• Palestinian olive sector loses over $157 million since 2023: Palestinian farmers lost more than $157 million in olive crops since 2023, while some 286,000 olive trees in the occupied West Bank were damaged between 2023 and the end of September 2026 due to Israeli measures and settler attacks, according to the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry.
  • The ministry said around 100,000 olive trees were damaged in the West Bank in the first nine months of 2026 alone, with crop losses exceeding $67 million. Farmers are currently unable to access roughly 30% of the West Bank’s olive-growing land, due to Israeli restrictions, settler attacks, land seizures, and the theft of olive crops.
  • In Gaza, more than 90% of an estimated two million olive trees have been lost since the war began in 2023, alongside extensive destruction of infrastructure supporting the olive sector.
• Israeli attacks damage or destroy 82% of Gaza’s buildings: Around 201,290 buildings in Gaza, or an estimated 82% of all buildings in the Strip, were damaged by Israeli attacks between October 7, 2023 and June 16, 2026, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
  • Of those, 134,422 buildings were completely destroyed and another 13,848 severely damaged. Most of Gaza’s roughly 2.1 million residents remain displaced and confined to less than 40% of the Strip due to Israeli access restrictions.
• Somalia’s president says country won’t accept Israeli presence “under any circumstances”: Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Somalia will not accept an Israeli presence “under any circumstances.”
  • In the interview, he alleged that Israel intends to establish a naval base in the port city of Berbera, and to use the city’s airport. He called these plans part of a “Greater Israel” project and described Israel as a “destabilizing force” which regularly violates international law.
  • Berbera is within the territory claimed by the self-declared republic of Somaliland, whose statehood Israel became the first to recognize in December 2025. Mogadishu insists Berbera remains part of the Somali Republic.
  • He also told the outlet that the United States remains Somalia’s strongest partner against “terrorism.”

Lebanon

• Israel launches air and artillery attacks across south Lebanon despite ceasefire: Israeli warplanes carried out strikes on Kfar Tebnit and Wadi Al-Hujair in southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported, while Israeli forces artillery shelled the outskirts of Hadatha and Bra’shit.
  • Overnight, Israeli shelling also targeted Al-Mansouri and Majdal Zoun.

U.S. News

• Trump announces $90 payments to 20 million seniors from Medicare Improvement Fund, surprising Congress: President Donald Trump announced on Saturday plans to send $90 payments to more than 20 million Medicare Part B enrollees this month, funded by about $2 billion from the Medicare Improvement Fund, which has gone unused for its stated purpose—namely, improving Medicare’s hospital and medical insurance programs—since its 2008 creation.
  • The announcement caught congressional offices in both parties by surprise and could unravel unrelated funding talks, a GOP aide told the Washington Post. Lawmakers originally intended to use Improvement Fund monies to help fund several other programs, including the Community Health Center Fund, the National Health Service Corps, the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program and several special diabetes programs, according to the aide.
• Hegseth signals some U.S. troops could shift from Europe to Western Hemisphere: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Saturday that some U.S. military capabilities currently in Europe could be redeployed “either back home to the big, beautiful base that we’re going to build … or to a different posture in the Western Hemisphere,” part of the administration’s push for “burden sharing” with the U.S.’s European allies and its increasing focus on military activity in the Western Hemisphere.
  • Hegseth cited expanded partnerships with Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama in his remarks on Saturday, crediting “the bold move the president made in Venezuela” in capturing Nicolás Maduro with opening “a whole new suite of options economically and militarily.” He also reiterated the U.S. is at “war” with cartels, vowing to “posture and base as necessary” to take the fight to what he called “those ISIS and Al Qaeda of our hemisphere.”
• Montana court blocks birthdate requirement on absentee ballots that led to thousands of rejections: A Montana state court ruled Friday night that HB 719, a 2025 law requiring absentee voters to include their birthdate on ballot envelopes or have their votes rejected, violates the state constitution, a win for disability advocates who argued the requirement increased the risk of valid ballots being thrown out over technicalities.
  • The law led to nearly 3,000 rejected mail ballots in the November 2025 election in a state where roughly 80 percent of voters cast absentee ballots. State officials failed to produce evidence of voter fraud justifying the law or explain how the birthdate requirement would prevent it, the court noted in its decision, stressing as well “the undisputed fact HB 719 has resulted in thousands of ballots being rejected due to a missing or incorrect birth year.”
• Judge blocks DHS environmental waivers, slowing border wall construction in Big Bend region: U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking the Department of Homeland Security from using waivers that exempted border barrier construction from historical and environmental protection laws across more than 500 miles of Texas’s Big Bend region, which includes Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park.
  • The order requires DHS to follow those laws while the legal challenge brought by Friends of the Ruidosa Church, river guide Danny William Miller and the Center for Biological Diversity proceeds.
  • The ruling follows a separate judge’s Thursday denial of a temporary restraining order specific to the national park, where the administration paused work through Sept. 30. DHS has said it is considering reducing the project’s scope, for which a $1.7 billion contract was already doled out to construct a “Big Bend border wall.” In filings, the administration said it would announce a final decision this week.
• DHS bought five planes from Noem donor’s firm at inflated prices in her final hours as secretary: On Kristi Noem’s last day as homeland security secretary, DHS agreed to pay Daedalus Aviation Corporation $108 million for a luxury 737 that the firm had bought months earlier from a seller asking under $90 million, plus $106 million for two Gulfstream jets Daedalus had purchased for about $83 million and $45 million each for two 17-year-old 737 passenger jets that six aviation experts told the Times were worth roughly $15-30 million, according to a Sunday report from the New York Times.
  • Daedalus’s chairman, William Walters, gave $10,000 to Noem’s political action committee in 2024, and his companies received more than $900 million in DHS contracts under Noem. Her successor at DHS, current secretary Markwayne Mullin, explored canceling the deal but, per two White House officials, was advised by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles against it over potential financial penalties.
• U.S.-Russia Ukraine talks now include multibillion-dollar Lukoil oil deal tied to Trump allies: U.S.-Russia negotiations over ending the Ukraine war have expanded to include a multibillion-dollar sale of Lukoil’s international oil assets, the New York Times reported on Saturday, with the leading bidder group featuring Todd Boehly—a Trump donor who gave $2 million to Trump-aligned causes—alongside Qatar’s Khayyat brothers, who have business ties with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, an Abu Dhabi fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed that is also a business partner of Kushner and bought a large stake in Trump’s World Liberty Financial, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
  • Putin first raised the deal with Steve Witkoff and Kushner at a Sept. 5 Kremlin meeting, and U.S. approval would lift sanctions on the assets, instantly boosting their value. The deal awaits approval from the Treasury Department, with the current extension of sanctions relief on Lukoil’s U.S. businesses running through Oct. 29.
• Altman says “world should accept some bad things happening” to help AI industry: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman contrasted his firm’s worldview with that of rival firm Anthropic in an interview with POLITICO’s Decoded, saying “we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.” He rejected Anthropic’s calls for centralization and regulation in the industry, calling this “a completely unacceptable trade-off.”
  • The comments come as the two companies’ policy positions have converged in recent months, with Altman backing Dario Amodei’s call to slow development of the most advanced models, OpenAI endorsing stricter state safety laws and lobbyists for OpenAI backing a bipartisan House proposal requiring outside safety evaluators.
• Trump threatens to “double” costs if South Korea doesn’t sign on to Alaska LNG project: President Trump said he “didn’t jump the gun” in announcing South Korean participation in a $50 billion Alaska LNG project. “Tell them if they don’t sign shortly, I’m going to double it up,” Trump said Friday, without specifying what would be doubled. Seoul has said it is still assessing the project, with participation dependent on commercial viability and compliance with domestic legal procedures.
• Trump posts Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal cell number to pressure him on daylight saving time: President Trump posted the personal cellphone number of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Saturday and urged Arkansans to call and tell him to “GET IT DONE” on the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill to make daylight saving time permanent that passed the House in July but faces Senate opposition from Cotton and other Republicans.
• California woman arrested for allegedly spying on Taiwanese president’s son for China: The FBI arrested Wanying Zhang, 34, of Irvine, California, at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday before her planned departure to China, charging her with acting as an unregistered foreign agent for allegedly surveilling a son of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te at the direction of Chinese officials.

Other International News

• U.S. strike on boat in Caribbean kills four: The U.S. military said it attacked a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean on Sunday, killing four people. U.S. Southern Command said the boat, a go-fast vessel, was targeted along known smuggling routes, but the military provided no evidence it was carrying drugs; a video posted on X appeared to show an explosion destroying the moving boat.
  • Sunday’s attack brings the total killed in boat strikes to at least 239 across 71 strikes since the Trump administration began targeting alleged “narcoterrorists” in September 2025.
• Flavio Bolsonaro outperforms polls, will face Lula in Brazil runoff: Brazilian Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro won about 47 percent of valid votes in Brazil’s first-round presidential election Sunday, exceeding his performance in private polls conducted before the election and narrowly outpacing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who won 44.9 percent of the vote. The two are set to face each other in an Oct. 25 runoff.
• Pro-government forces seize capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region: Pro-government forces, led by the Tigray Peace Forces (TPLF) militia, announced in a Sunday Facebook post that they had regained control of Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, with a source close to the militia saying fighters entered the city center Saturday afternoon, followed by the Ethiopian military.
  • The TPLF confirmed it had retreated and said the regional government would be “temporarily moved out of Mekelle and operate from somewhere else.”
  • The loss of Mekelle is a major setback for the anti-government coalition led by the TPLF, which announced its offensive against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government on September 23.
• Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan leaders issue joint declaration on Ethiopia conflict: The leaders of the Egyptian, Eritrean, Somali and Sudanese governments—Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Isaias Afwerki, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan—issued a joint declaration regarding clashes in Ethiopia on Sunday after a meeting in New Alamein City, Egypt.
  • The resolution appears to target several Ethiopian policies: it states that Red Sea control should remain with coastal states, a response to landlocked Ethiopia’s pursuit of sea access, and warns against “unilateral measures” harming downstream states over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The declaration also backed Sudan’s military-led government and urged a Sudanese-led political process.
  • Ethiopia has accused Egypt, Eritrea, and Sudan of backing the TPLF-led armed alliance fighting its government—claims all three deny.
• Arrested journalists in Egypt describe torture, forced confessions: Several of the journalists from the news platform Matsdaash who were detained and forcibly disappeared in Egypt last week told prosecutors on Sunday they had been tortured at National Security Agency facilities in the days following their arrests, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
  • The journalists described being bound with their hands behind their backs and blindfolded while being held and interrogated at National Security facilities. They also reported beatings, forced stripping, electric shocks, and threats to harm them or their families, EIPR reported. The journalists also said officers forced them to read statements on camera in order to record false confessions.
  • The prosecution’s questioning of five of the journalists—Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Adel, and Mohamed Mahmoud—is scheduled to continue on Monday. Questioning was completed on Sunday for the sixth journalist, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, and the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered him to be held in pretrial detention for 15 days pending investigation.
  • The families and lawyers of the journalists still do not know where they are being held.
  • On Capitol Hill, several members of congress have called for the journalists’ immediate release, including the Egypt Human Rights Caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Don Beyer and Suzan DelBene; Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
• Pro-Imran Khan march launches after talks with government collapse: More than 5,000 supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan began a protest march Sunday from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province toward Islamabad after two rounds of scheduled talks between the PTI and the government over the weekend failed to reach a resolution.
  • The march was originally planned for Sept. 27 and aims to secure the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his three sisters. It is set to reach Khairabad, 80 km from the capital, by Thursday, where the PTI will announce its “next phase.”
  • Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi accused KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi of “sabotaging” negotiations and warned authorities would “pursue [protesters] one by one” for violating an Islamabad High Court order barring parties from occupying public roads. The Pakistani government has also blocked main routes into the capital using shipping containers.
• India, Pakistan summon each other’s diplomats over deadly border incident: India and Pakistan summoned each other’s top diplomats Saturday over an October 2 incident in which Pakistan says India’s Border Security Force used “unprovoked lethal force” to kill two unarmed Pakistani civilians in the Bedian sector of their international border. In its account of the incident, India claimed three people crossed illegally into Punjab’s Ferozepur sector and kept moving toward the border fence despite repeated warnings, forcing the BSF to “engage them for posing an imminent security threat.”
  • Pakistan has demanded an “immediate, transparent and credible investigation” into the incident.
  • India dismissed Pakistan’s account of the killings as “baseless and motivated,” describing the incident as part of “a clear pattern of repeated cross-border movement by armed narcotics syndicates operating from Pakistan.”
• Mass protests demanding election chief’s resignation enter third day across India: Thousands of youth and opposition protesters rallied for a third straight day Sunday, demanding the resignation of Election Commission of India chief Gyanesh Kumar over voter-roll revisions critics say have removed millions of voters in ways benefiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
  • Opposition leaders Raj and Uddhav Thackeray led a large protest march in Mumbai on Sunday. Similar demonstrations continued in New Delhi on Sunday evening, where police have detained dozens and filed cases against some for violating bans on mass gatherings. An opposition alliance plans to march to the election commission’s office Tuesday, while the Cockroach Janta Party, a major force in these protests, plans to hold a major rally in New Delhi on October 10.
• Air strike kills UN aid truck driver in Sudan’s South Kordofan, WFP says; RSF accused of seizing WFP aid trucks: An air strike on clearly marked World Food Program trucks carrying food aid killed a driver Saturday in South Kordofan as the convoy traveled between two army-controlled cities, the WFP said Sunday, without identifying who was responsible. The agency called for an investigation into the killing and said it underscores “the increasingly challenging security environment in Sudan and the risks that aid workers face.”
  • Separately on Sunday, Abdel Baqi Mohamed Hamed, humanitarian aid commissioner for the Darfur regional government, accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of seizing 32 World Food Programme trucks from a 60-truck convoy that crossed from Chad through the Tina border point last week. He said the RSF had released 12 of the 44 trucks it had originally seized, but continues to hold the remainder while demanding large extortion payments.
• Dodik’s party claims victory in Bosnia election despite his ban from office: Preliminary results from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Sunday general election show Zeljka Cvijanovic of banned Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik’s right-wing Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) party leading the race for the Serb seat in the country’s three-member presidency. The victory would reinforce Dodik’s influence despite his conviction last year for defying the international envoy overseeing the 1995 peace agreement, which barred him from the ballot.
  • Leftist Denis Becirovic led in the race for the Bosniak seat, and Croat nationalist Darijana Filipovic appears poised to take the seat reserved for her coethnics.
• Nicaragua withdraws from Central American Parliament: Nicaragua’s foreign ministry announced Saturday that it would immediately withdraw from the Central American Parliament, denouncing the 1987 treaty establishing the six-country body and calling its exit “a full exercise of its sovereignty.”
  • The announcement comes a day after the Organization of American States passed a resolution urging Nicaraguan authorities to free political prisoners and restore civil liberties.
  • The move continues a pattern of retreat from international institutions by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, following Nicaragua’s 2023 exit from the OAS, which it called a tool of “U.S. interventionism,” and its 2025 announcement of withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council after a UN report urged action on its rights abuses.
• Russia strikes Kyiv bridge as Germany’s Merz makes unannounced visit: Russia struck the Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River in Kyiv on Sunday, the same day German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made an unannounced visit to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It was the second Kyiv bridge hit this weekend, also damaging a road and hot water supply, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
  • Addressing his visit, during which he toured the missile-damaged National Academy of Sciences with Zelenskyy, Merz wrote that “if Russia is not stopped, its war machine will sooner or later turn against us.”
  • On Sunday, Germany announced that it would send $1.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, in addition to $394 million to repair Ukraine’s energy sector. The two countries are also set to finalize a deal to jointly produce long-range drones capable of traveling more than 600 miles.
• Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready for U.S.-backed trilateral talks, accuses Russia of sharing jet technology with North Korea: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a Kyiv news conference with Merz on Sunday that Ukraine is ready to join trilateral technical-level talks with the U.S. and Russia by the end of October, confirming the UAE, which has hosted prior rounds, could again serve as the venue or “another country proposed by the American side.” U.S. mediation efforts had been paused since Washington launched its war on Iran.
  • Zelenskyy also accused Russia on Sunday of sharing jet-drone technology with North Korea, answering “yes, of course” when asked about the matter, adding “they are sharing with North Korea all the technologies… because North Korea helped them with missiles.” Russia has sharply increased its use of jet drones against Ukraine in recent weeks, and Ukraine has so far had no effective countermeasure beyond using combat aircraft.
• Japan summons U.S. ambassador after Marine arrested in Okinawa murder: Japan summoned U.S. Ambassador George Glass after Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, a 20-year-old U.S. Marine, was arrested on suspicion of robbing and murdering 39-year-old Anna Yagi in Naha, Okinawa.
  • Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the incident “extremely brutal and heinous” and said Japan “lodged a strong protest” with the U.S. envoy.
• Philippines accuses Chinese maritime forces of obstructing anti-blast-fishing operation near Thitu Island: The Philippine Coast Guard said on Sunday that Chinese vessels blocked a Philippine law enforcement operation against a foreign fishing vessel suspected of dynamite fishing near Thitu Island (Pag-asa) in the South China Sea, with two China Coast Guard ships sounding horns, radio-challenging, shadowing, and blocking Philippine boats while a Chinese navy helicopter circled the team four times. The suspect vessel then fled toward Chinese-built Subi Reef, and Philippine authorities ended the pursuit for safety reasons.
  • Separately, the Philippine military said a Chinese J-16 fighter jet repeatedly approached and maneuvered close to a Philippine patrol aircraft over Scarborough Shoal on Saturday, creating an aviation safety risk. It condemned China for its “recurring pattern of unsafe and coercive behavior.”