NOTE: We will be off on Monday, October 12, for Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Palestine

• Israeli attacks kill nine Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday and Friday: Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians and wounded several others across the Gaza Strip on Thursday and Friday, according to WAFA.
  • On Friday, Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians east of the Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza, killing one man who was shot in the neck and wounding others.
  • On Thursday, eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks, including two men in a drone strike on a vehicle near the Jordanian field hospital in southwest Gaza City, a woman in artillery shelling northwest of the city, and two people, including a child, in a drone strike on a home in the Sabra neighborhood.
• Israeli settlers carry out at least 19 attacks across the occupied West Bank, targeting olive harvesters and property: Israeli settlers carried out at least 19 attacks across the occupied West Bank on Friday, assaulting olive harvesters, burning vehicles and trees, stealing livestock, and forcing farmers off their land, according to the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission. Israeli forces also fired live ammunition and tear gas at farmers, confiscated agricultural equipment, and conducted raids and arrests.
  • Nablus: Settlers attacked olive harvesters across several villages, including Tal, Jamma’in, Qusra, Beita, Sebastia, Beit Furik, and Deir Sharaf, forcing farmers off their land. They burned a vehicle in Tal and uprooted more than 50 olive trees in Qusra, where Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades, sparking fires.
  • Ramallah: Settlers attacked farmers in Deir Sudan and Deir Ibzi, stealing crops and forcing them off their land. Armed settlers stole 20 sheep in Ein Qiniya under Israeli military protection, while a man and his child were assaulted and their vehicle stolen in Yabroud. Two people were injured in settler attacks in Deir Ibzi.
  • Salfit: Israeli soldiers and settlers fired live ammunition to drive farmers from their land in Deir Ballut, while settlers injured a farmer in Kafr ad-Dik. Settlers also burned olive trees in Wadi Al-Shaer.
  • Hebron: A 79-year-old woman was injured after settlers unleashed dogs on olive harvesters in Birin. Israeli forces confiscated a school transport vehicle, two tractors and animal feed in Masafer Yatta, and arrested nine Palestinians in Hebron, including the director of the Ibrahimi Mosque.
  • Jenin: Settlers cut down 100 olive trees in Al-Mughayyir village overnight Thursday.
• Palestinian Authority plans to postpone November elections until September 2027: Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein Al-Sheikh informed France that legislative elections scheduled for November 28 will be postponed, potentially until September 2027, citing worsening political, security and economic conditions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, according to an October 8 letter seen by Reuters.
  • The letter pointed to a number of causes for the postponement, including expectations of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the deployment of international forces and Palestinian police, curbs on Israeli annexation and settler violence, and the release of nearly $7 billion in Palestinian funds withheld by Israel, that had not materialized.
  • Palestinians have not held legislative elections since 2006 or presidential elections since 2005, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has ruled by decree since his presidential mandate expired in 2009. Hamas won a majority over Fatah in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, prompting severe Israeli economic and military measures against the Hamas-led government.
• Nearly 22,000 Palestinian children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza over three years, with more than 71,000 orphaned: Israeli attacks killed at least 21,976 Palestinian children in Gaza over the past three years, an average of one child every 71 minutes, according to a report by Gaza’s Health Ministry.
  • Among those killed were 5,444 children under five and 1,125 infants under one year old. Another 45,569 children have been injured, including 1,134 who have undergone amputations, while 71,846 have been orphaned.
  • The ministry also reported 612 children killed while seeking food or medicine, 466 deaths from malnutrition, including 157 children, and 2,027 patients who died while awaiting medical evacuation, including 264 children.
  • The report found that all 38 hospitals and 158 primary healthcare centers in Gaza have been targeted, with 19 hospitals and 64 healthcare centers out of service. It also documented 1,723 healthcare workers killed and 216 ambulances targeted.
• Israeli military actions linked to deaths of at least 24 captives in Gaza, CNN investigation finds: At least 24 of the 40 Israeli captives who died in captivity in Gaza had deaths linked to Israeli military actions, including airstrikes and ground operations, as well as military advances that prompted their captors to kill them, a CNN investigation found. At least 11 were killed directly by Israeli military operations.
  • The investigation, based on interviews with captive families and Israeli officials, also found that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly delayed ceasefire negotiations, including a potential deal in July 2024 that officials said could have saved lives.
• Colombia to open Israel embassy in Jerusalem next week: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Thursday that Colombia will inaugurate its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem “next Wednesday,” as he touted expanding ties with Latin America. A Colombian Foreign Ministry official told AFP that Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar will travel to Jerusalem on Sunday ahead of the opening.
  • Abelardo De la Espriella, Colombia’s new right-wing president, promised close relations with Israel during his campaign. Once elected, he restored diplomatic ties with Israel that left-wing President Gustavo Petro had severed as a result of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
  • Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in 1980 in a move largely unrecognized internationally, claiming the entire city as its capital, while Palestinians seek Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Yemen

• Three killed in Ansarallah attacks on Saudi airport: Three Saudi citizens were killed and several others injured in two Ansarallah attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Thursday, according to Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority.
  • One attack targeted airport facilities, while the other struck a Saudi Airlines aircraft on the ground, killing an airline employee and damaging the plane, which had no passengers aboard.
  • Hundreds of flights to Riyadh were cancelled, though flight cancellations fell from 335 on Thursday to at least 103 on Friday as the airport worked to restore normal operations. The EU Aviation Safety Agency also expanded its warning against flying over parts of Saudi Arabia, citing Ansarallah’ demonstrated ability to strike targets deeper inside the kingdom, including Riyadh.
• Saudi-led coalition destroys three Ansarallah missile launchers as airstrikes reported in Sana’a: The Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed three missile launch platforms used by Ansarallah, releasing footage of the strikes.
  • Separately, Ansarallah-affiliated Al-Masira reported airstrikes on Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, without immediately providing details on casualties or damage.

Iran

• Trump says U.S. will not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterms: President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday that “we will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd.”
  • He justified this further in the post by claiming that Iran is “in very bad condition, both Economically and Militarily.”
  • He has repeatedly tied the war to the midterms, saying he believes Iran’s leaders are trying to hold out through November to hurt Republicans, and that he expects to win the war after the vote.
• Putin tells Iran’s Pezeshkian Russia will “do everything” to help end the U.S.-led war: Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Turkmenistan on Thursday, ahead of the Commonwealth of Independent States summit, and said, “On our part, we are ready to do everything we can to help you resolve this situation,” according to the Interfax news service.
  • The Russian president commended Iran for making “real efforts to end the conflict, which broke out through no fault of its own,” and noted a “positive evolution” in Iran-Russia ties.
  • On Wednesday, Putin told Pezeshkian in a call that Moscow is ready to mediate between the U.S. and Iran, Iran’s IRNA reported.
  • Pezeshkian said talks with the U.S. to end the war could succeed only if based on “mutual respect and reciprocal commitments” and free from “pressure and threats,” speaking at the summit on Friday.
• Iran’s IRGC strikes LPG tanker, threatens to target vessels beyond Strait of Hormuz: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it struck a large LPG tanker named NV Sunshine attempting to transit an “illegal route” south of the Strait of Hormuz, causing a major fire in its engine room and propulsion system, according to Tasnim news agency.
  • The IRGC subsequently warned that vessels using unauthorized routes would face “punitive measures” even outside the strait, threatening to pursue them “throughout the region” and warning against following “deception of the American aggressors.”
• At least 81 U.S. military aircraft lost or damaged in war against Iran, costing up to $3.3 billion: At least 81 U.S. military aircraft were lost or damaged during Operation Epic Fury, Washington’s military campaign against Iran launched on February 28, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.
  • The report estimated losses of $1.9 billion to $3.3 billion as of August 1, including 12 F-15E fighter jets, one F-35A, seven KC-135 refueling aircraft and 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones.
• U.S. sanctions 17 more vessels carrying Iranian oil: The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on 17 additional vessels linked to Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet” as part of its “Operation Economic Outcast” campaign to cut Tehran’s oil revenues amid the ongoing war.
  • The vessels, registered across more than a dozen jurisdictions, have transported millions of barrels of Iranian crude and petroleum products, according to the Treasury.
  • A U.S. official said Iran has stopped loading and unloading oil because of the American blockade of its ports, while shipping data firm Kpler reported no Iranian crude loaded for export since August 25.

Lebanon

• Israeli forces uproot olive trees in southern Lebanon amid airstrikes and artillery shelling:
  • Nabatieh: Israeli infantry accompanied by a D9 bulldozer advanced to within 50 meters of a Lebanese army position in Zawtar Al-Gharbiyeh, continuing to uproot olive trees in an operation that began Thursday, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
    • Israeli warplanes also struck the outskirts of Kfar Tebnit, following overnight shelling near Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, Kfar Tebnit and Mayfadoun.
  • Marjayoun: An Israeli Merkava tank advanced from Khiam toward the Ibl al-Saqi spring, with Israeli forces firing machine guns toward the surrounding area. Artillery also struck Wadi Al-Salouqi.
  • Tyre (Sour): Israeli forces shelled Mansouri, Majdal Zoun and surrounding valleys overnight.
  • Bint Jbeil: Israeli shelling targeted Wadi Zibqin and areas near Baraachit and Hadatha.

U.S. News

• ICE agent shoots and wounds man in New York City with 5-year-old in car: An ICE agent fired seven rounds into a car around 4 p.m. Thursday in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood, wounding Oscar Belgal, 28, in the neck below the left ear, according to New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. A 5-year-old boy believed to be his son was in the back seat and was not injured.
  • Surveillance video of the incident showed a plainclothes officer approaching the driver’s window with his gun drawn before the car began to move, Tisch noted.
  • DHS said agents were trying to arrest an undocumented Dominican immigrant with a grand larceny conviction, but did not name Belgal, explain why the agent fired, or whether the agent knew a child was in the car. The New York City Police Department said its officers were not involved.
  • New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting “an outrage,” saying “there is no justification for what we have seen today.” Mamdani also claimed that during a two hour call with President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin they refused to release Belgal, whom ICE took away in an unmarked vehicle. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she urged Trump and Mullin to halt ICE operations in New York and asked that any body-camera footage be released.
  • Protesters gathered at the scene and outside Allen Hospital, where officers scuffled with them and at least one person was detained. Incoming Rep. Darializa Avila Chevalier was on the frontlines of the protest and thrown to the ground.
  • Immigration agents have shot at least two dozen people across the country since January 2025, killing six, including three U.S. citizens.
• Trump disclosed 517 securities trades in August, including up to $25 million in Meta and SpaceX debt bought two days before a space policy signing: Trump’s August financial disclosure lists 517 purchases and sales totaling roughly $74.3 million to $273.3 million, according to a CNBC analysis, with purchases of at least $44.2 million and sales of at least $30.1 million. The largest was an August 21 purchase of $5 million to $25 million in Meta stock.
  • On August 18, Trump’s accounts bought $1 million to $5 million in senior unsecured SpaceX notes at 5.35 percent, maturing in 2031. Two days later, he signed a national space transportation policy calling for more than 1,000 launches and reentries a year by 2030. SpaceX is a major Pentagon contractor and NASA launch provider.
  • On August 26, his portfolio bought $15,001 to $50,000 of Tyson Foods the same day he signed a proclamation expanding low-tariff imports of lean beef trimmings. The disclosure does not show whether the trade came before or after the signing.
  • Trump’s 2025 annual disclosure showed more than 21,000 trades across eight accounts holding at least $858 million, which contrasts starkly with the 86 stock transactions he made during the first year of his first term, in 2017.
• Pentagon to livestream firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter: War Secretary Pete Hegseth told Real America’s Voice on Thursday that Nidal Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, “is gonna get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be.” He added, “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it. That it’s public. Because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” Hasan is scheduled to be executed December 3 at Fort Hood.
  • The Pentagon later released a statement confirming that the execution will be livestreamed.
  • The U.S. hasn’t held a public execution since 1936, when Rainey Bethea was hanged in Kentucky. It would be the first US military execution since 1961. The last military firing-squad execution was in 1945.
• FBI deletes video attacking Democrats: An FBI video posted Tuesday on its rapid response X account labeled prominent Democrats, among them Kamala Harris, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, former Rep. Cori Bush and Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, as part of “the DEFUND THE POLICE crowd,” and accused them of seeking to “let criminals run wild while cops take a backseat.” The FBI has since deleted the post and did not respond to a request for comment.
  • Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates violations of the Hatch Act, which limits the partisan political activities of federal executive branch employees (excluding the President).
  • CREW CEO Donald Sherman said in an X post on Thursday that although the video does not tell viewers how to vote, its message that the candidates’ policies “failed” is “advocacy against their election.” He added that tagging El-Sayed as “Progressive Democrat, Senate Nominee” “clearly invokes the election.”
• Trump administration suspends Microsoft, seven other firms from green card program, alleging fraud: Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday that the administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe and tech consulting firms Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini from the H-1B visa program that allows foreign workers to apply for green cards.
  • Vance accused the firms of hiding the job offers they are required to first publicly announce in the U.S. in “small town newspapers.” He also claimed that Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.
  • Microsoft said about 80 percent of its roughly 6,000 H-1B filings last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees, and that the rest were for people already legally in the U.S.
  • Vance also singled out nine universities for investigation over J-1 visa use: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State and MIT. MIT, Brown and Pitt said they had received subpoenas related to this investigation.
  • The announcement came hours before Trump awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
• Rogers leaves door open to AIPAC support in Michigan Senate race: Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers signaled at a Thursday debate that he would accept AIPAC’s backing against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, saying “anybody that wants to help my campaign stop” El-Sayed, “I’ll take all of that help.”
  • AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, spent more than $30 million against El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic primary. AdImpact data show the group does not appear to have bought TV ads since.
  • An August Axios report said Rogers’ allies had asked AIPAC not to advertise for him, and that the group scrapped an anti-El-Sayed video a day after Rogers spoke with AIPAC board Chair Michael Tuchin. Rogers believed, according to Axios, that the group might be a liability to him in the general election, though around the time of his initial rupture with the group, he reportedly attended AIPAC-hosted fundraisers in California in August.

Other International News

• Ukrainian strikes kill two in Russia’s Belgorod; Russian bombs kill one in Zaporizhzhia: A Ukrainian strike killed two people and injured four, including a child, in the Russian border region of Belgorod on Friday, the Russian news agency TASS reported.
  • A separate drone attack on the central region of Kaluga injured nine.
  • In Ukraine, Russian bombs reportedly killed one person and injured seven, including a child, in Zaporizhzhia, according to the region’s governor.
• No survivors from sunken ship off Bulgaria: Bulgarian authorities said they had found no survivors from the recently sunken Alfa Watan ship, one of two commercial vessels sunk by a drone in the Black Sea on Tuesday. Both of the sunken ships were managed by Turkey-based companies, according to Equasis.
  • A Syrian customs official told AFP on Thursday nine of the ten missing crew members on the recently sunken Alfa Watan were Syrians and the tenth was Egyptian.

• Navi Pillay, who led UN inquiry finding Israel committed genocide in Gaza, wins Nobel Peace Prize: South African jurist Navi Pillay, 85, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday as “as a driving force in the development of an international system of law and order.” A former UN human rights chief, ICC judge and anti-apartheid advocate, Pillay chaired the UN inquiry that concluded last year that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
  • Pillay learned of the award at a legal conference in Nuremberg, Germany, where Nazi leaders were tried after World War II. “The last thing I did is the delivery of the report on Gaza, naming what’s happening there as genocide,” she said.
  • In response to the award, Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused Pillay of spreading “lies, hatred, and blood libels” and promoting what it called the “genoLIE.” “Now that the Nobel commission has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell,” it added, invoking the Nazi propaganda minister.

• Ethiopia tells UN Security Council it will defend itself against Eritrean “all-out invasion”: Ethiopia said in a letter to the UN Security Council that it has no option but to defend itself against what it described as an “all out invasion” by Eritrea, in its first official statement on reported Eritrean incursions earlier this week, according to Reuters.
  • Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos wrote that Eritrean forces, “including mechanized units,” have deployed up to 60 km (37 miles) into northern Ethiopia. He called the Eritrean incursions a “matter of public record” and “a blatant act of aggression that engages Ethiopia’s inherent right to self-defense.”
  • Witnesses told Reuters this week they saw Eritrean soldiers in northern Ethiopia, days after the two countries severed diplomatic ties. Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of backing a rebel alliance fighting federal troops since September 23 in Tigray, Amhara and Afar.
• Drone strikes hit Eritrean forces inside northern Ethiopia, conflict monitor says: Drone strikes, believed to have been carried out by Ethiopia’s military, targeted Eritrean military vehicles near Adigrat as they withdrew from positions in Tigray on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the U.S.-based conflict monitor ACLED.
  • Eritrean soldiers crossed into Ethiopia on Wednesday, advanced dozens of kilometers, then pulled back under heavy bombardment, the conflict monitor added. Two sources, a diplomat and a conflict expert in contact with both sides, reported that Eritrean forces were moving north but said it was unclear whether they were leaving Ethiopia or redeploying within it.
• Brazilian justice issues arrest warrant for Eduardo Bolsonaro weeks before runoff: Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Eduardo Bolsonaro, brother of presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, ordering him to begin serving a four-year sentence immediately. Moraes cancelled Bolsonaro’s passport and told federal police to arrest him should he return from Texas, where he currently resides,
  • The Supreme Court convicted Eduardo in June of lobbying the U.S. to interfere in the trial of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, alleging that he lobbied for the U.S. to impose sanctions on Brazilian officials and tariffs on Brazilian exports.
  • Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years for plotting a coup, in an investigation chaired by de Moraes, whom the Bolsonaro family regards as a political enemy.
  • The presidential election runoff between President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro is set for October 25.
• France pledges 3,000 extra teachers as student protests continue; stun grenades banned from marches: French Education Minister Edouard Geffray announced on Thursday that 3,000 teachers would be sent to high-priority schools by Tuesday, with a “few hundred more” to be recruited, after weeks of mass protests that have gripped the country. Nearly 71,500 people protested across France on Thursday, with 24,500 protesters reported in Paris alone, France’s Interior Ministry said. More than 500 people were arrested.
  • Economy Minister Roland Lescure added, following the 1.4% increase in money allocated for education in France’s 2027 budget, that there was “room” to meet the demands of the protesters for more resources.
  • The protests began September 21 at a school in a deprived Paris area. Initiated by high school students, the demonstrations have grown to include university students and trade unions. Demands have included more teachers, renovated buildings and fewer classroom hours.
  • Police have been accused of using excessive force, with the use of stun grenades being banned after a teenager lost his hand to a police stun grenade earlier this week.
• Prison fight in Sinaloa kills 10, including a minor: A fight inside the El Castillo Penitentiary Centre in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, left nine prisoners and a family visitor dead and 16 prisoners injured, state authorities said Thursday. A state official also added that the family visitor killed in the fight was a minor.
  • Mexican security forces reportedly moved into the prison, and officials report that the prison is now “under control.”
  • Sinaloa is a battleground for warring factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel, and the State Department advises Americans not to visit it. Officials have not said whether the violence was linked to that conflict.
• U.S. judge orders Trump administration to facilitate return of Egyptian man deported to Equatorial Guinea: U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker ruled Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security must facilitate the release of Ahmed Soliman from custody in Equatorial Guinea and his return to the U.S., Reuters reported.
  • Soliman was deported to the central African country this year under a third-country deportation deal. Last month he said Equatorial Guinean police treated him roughly, and video obtained by Reuters showed officers pulling firearms on migrants, including him. After Reuters published this story, he was taken into custody and has been held incommunicado at a gendarmerie station.
  • Soliman told an immigration judge last year he feared being killed in Egypt because he is gay. Reuters has documented 40 cases of migrants granted U.S. protection over persecution for their LGBT status who were deported to African countries that criminalize same-sex relations or have been described by the State Department as hostile to LGBT people.
• UN Security Council extends Sudan sanctions by two months: The Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to extend sanctions on arms sales to warring factions in Darfur until December 11, 2026, after the United States withdrew a draft that would have broadened the scope of the sanctions to cover the whole of Sudan and all of its warring parties.
  • Several member states reportedly wanted a standard one-year renewal of the Darfur embargo, which date back to 2005, without changes. Russia, which holds a veto, notably opposed the U.S. proposal to widen the sanctions regime.
• South Africa withdraws asylum intake directive after anti-migrant protests turn violent: South Africa’s Home Affairs Department said Friday it had withdrawn a directive allowing it to resume processing asylum applications, a day after anti-migrant protests turned violent in Johannesburg and Durban.
  • The directive would have implemented a July 7 Constitutional Court ruling that found that asylum seekers could not be denied access to the system solely on “procedural grounds,” meaning primarily that those who had entered the country illegally would not be automatically disqualified from asylum. The department said the proposed directive was withdrawn after the number of asylum applications overwhelmed refugee reception offices within days of its announcement, putting officials at risk and threatening public safety and order
  • On Thursday, rioters torched 14 vehicles in Durban and 10 in Johannesburg’s Soweto township, and foreign-owned shops were looted. A months-long surge in anti-immigrant protests in South Africa has strained its relations with other African countries and forced thousands of foreign nationals to leave.
• ICC judges rule Duterte fit to stand trial; trial opens Nov. 30: International Criminal Court judges ruled in a September 28 decision, announced Thursday, that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, 81, is fit to stand trial on crimes against humanity charges tied to his drug war. An independent expert panel found he “has the capacity to understand the charges,” follow proceedings, understand the evidence, and discuss his defense with lawyers. He will be asked to enter a plea when the trial opens November 30.