Sunday 18 October 2026 · No. 8
Top Story Saudi Arabia and Yemen
Saudi Arabia says 12 died in the October 10 attack on Riyadh airport; Trump urges Riyadh to accept Israeli help.
🧵 New to this story? Read the story so far →The Houthis, who control Sanaa, have attacked Saudi Arabia since Yemen’s civil war reignited in July. On October 10 a strike hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia says 12 people were killed and 300 wounded. The airport remains suspended through October 17; Jeddah and Dammam are operating with delays.
The fighting is also inside Yemen. On October 15 Houthi missiles hit the Al-Maashiq presidential palace in Aden, the interim capital; Yemen’s health minister said five people were killed and 16 wounded. The UN Security Council issued a presidential statement condemning the Houthi attacks, which Saudi Arabia welcomed, citing Resolution 2216 (2015).
The Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted a ballistic missile aimed at Yanbu, two cruise missiles over the Red Sea and drones over several regions, and destroyed Houthi storage sites in Sanaa, Saada and Amran. Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of encouraging the Houthis; Iran denies it and offers to mediate.
On October 16 Trump said Israel “has been very helpful to Saudi Arabia” and that Saudi–Israeli normalisation could be back on the table. Riyadh has said it will normalise only with a clear path to Palestinian statehood. Indian carriers have paused Saudi flights: Air India until October 20 and IndiGo until October 24.
The Houthis are a group that controls Sanaa, a city in Yemen. Yemen's civil war started again in July. A civil war is a war between groups inside one country. Since then, the Houthis have attacked Saudi Arabia.
On October 10, an attack hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia says 12 people died. The airport was closed through October 17.
The fighting is in Yemen too. On October 15, Houthi missiles hit the presidential palace in Aden. Aden is Yemen's temporary capital. Yemen's health minister said five people were killed. The United Nations Security Council spoke out against the Houthi attacks.
Saudi Arabia says Iran is encouraging the Houthis. Iran says that is not true. Indian airlines have paused flights to Saudi Arabia for now.
World Europe and Ukraine
The Brussels summit also failed to settle the EU’s 2028–2034 budget.
🧵 New to this story? Read the story so far →At a two-day summit in Brussels ending October 16, EU leaders kept sanctions on Russia and backed Ukraine. President Zelenskyy said the war will cost Ukraine 155 billion euros next year and asked for an extra 70 billion euros. The EU has already agreed a 90 billion euro loan covering 2026 and 2027, and the Commission was asked to propose how to close the gap.
Zelenskyy is in a dispute with Washington. Trump announced an energy truce the weekend before the summit; Zelenskyy abandoned it on October 15, saying Russia had not honoured it, and Trump called that “a disgrace.” Trump has also suspended sanctions on Russian oil products under a diesel deal with Putin, which Zelenskyy says puts more money in Putin’s pocket.
On the EU budget, the Commission proposed nearly 2 trillion euros for 2028–2034. The Irish presidency’s compromise would cut about 141 billion euros, but Euronews reports it is dead. Costa is expected to present a compromise before a special summit on November 26.
Elsewhere on the summit agenda, leaders asked the Commission for a toolbox of trade defences against China, including quotas and tariffs. The EU’s trade deficit with China is about 360 billion euros, and Chinese exports to the EU rose 25% over the past year. Russian strikes killed three people in Kharkiv and left hundreds of thousands without power.
Leaders of the European Union, or EU, met in Brussels for two days. The meeting ended on October 16. They agreed to keep sanctions on Russia. Sanctions are punishments that limit trade with a country. The leaders also said they support Ukraine.
Ukraine's President Zelenskyy said the war will cost his country 155 billion euros next year. Euros are a kind of money. He asked for 70 billion euros more. The EU has already agreed to lend Ukraine 90 billion euros.
The leaders could not agree on the EU's budget for 2028 to 2034. A budget is a plan for how money will be spent. Another special meeting is planned for November 26.
The leaders also asked for new ways to protect EU trade from China. One idea is tariffs, which are extra taxes on goods from another country.
India New Delhi
Thirteen opposition leaders challenge the Special Intensive Revision.
On October 15 a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notice to the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. It tagged the petition with cases already pending. Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and other INDIA bloc leaders, 13 in all, filed it on October 12. Gandhi is Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Kharge holds the same role in the Rajya Sabha. Other named petitioners include Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Supriya Sule and Sanjay Raut. The Supreme Court registry registered the petition on October 13, after initial defects were cured.
The petition says the Chief Election Commissioner used the Commission’s collective powers on his own during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). It challenges electors being excluded without notice or hearing and invokes Articles 14, 21 and 326 of the Constitution. The unrest followed a late-September Indian Express investigation alleging that the other two commissioners’ objections were disregarded.
The Election Commission denies violations and says voters removed in error can register again. On May 27 the Supreme Court upheld the SIR’s validity in an earlier case; the petitioners say they do not seek to reopen it. The court also agreed to consider separate petitions on police conduct and detentions during the Delhi protests.
The petition asks the court to call for the Commission’s files, minutes and notings, and challenges changes to the statutory Form 6 and the ECINET and ERONET databases. After lawyers mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s march to the court, the bench remarked that “Nobody can browbeat judiciary.”
A voter list shows who is allowed to vote. India's Election Commission has been reviewing these lists. The review is called the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR.
Thirteen opposition leaders asked the Supreme Court to look at it. The opposition means the parties that are not in power. The leaders include Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge. They say some voters were taken off the lists without warning. They also say those voters did not get a chance to be heard.
On October 15, the court asked the Election Commission to reply. The Commission says it did nothing wrong. It says voters removed by mistake can sign up again.
The case matters because India's Constitution promises adults the right to vote. The Constitution is the country's most important set of rules.
Politics & Civics United States
Twelve senators from both parties urged him to cancel it; a House bill faces a likely veto.
On October 9 President Trump announced a deal to let Russian diesel reach world markets by easing sanctions. Senators say it would let the US import about 2.2 million tons over two months. Six Republican and six Democratic senators, including McConnell, Cornyn, Collins, Murkowski and Tillis, wrote to him urging him to rescind it.
On October 16 a group of House Democrats and one Republican filed a bill to block the deal. To become law it would have to pass Congress and survive a presidential veto, which is the president’s power to reject a bill. Republican leaders have not joined the effort, and Congress is away until after the midterms.
The Constitution lets Congress override a veto, but only with a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate. That is a high bar when the parties disagree, which is why opponents of the diesel deal need Republican votes as well as Democratic ones. The senators’ letter, sent on October 13, said the deal “should be rescinded.” The bipartisan signers show that unease is not limited to one party.
This is how checks and balances work in practice: Congress can write laws limiting a president’s action, but the president can refuse to sign them. Midterm elections three weeks away, with fuel prices a political drag for Republicans, add pressure.
Reaction has been international. The European Council expressed regret over the US decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel, and Ukraine’s president says the deal puts more money in Putin’s pocket. Bloomberg describes the bill’s chances of passing as poor, since passing it would be difficult.
On October 9, US President Trump announced a deal about Russian diesel, which is a fuel. The deal eases sanctions. Sanctions are punishments that limit trade. The deal would let Russian diesel be sold around the world.
Some members of Congress, which makes US laws, do not like the deal. Twelve senators wrote to Trump asking him to cancel it. Six were Republicans and six were Democrats.
On October 16, some lawmakers filed a bill to block the deal. A bill is a plan for a new law. But the president can veto a bill, which means reject it. Congress can beat a veto only with a two-thirds vote in both its parts. That is hard, so the bill's chances look poor.
This is part of checks and balances. Congress can write laws to limit the president. The president can refuse to sign them.
Economy India
Fuel and power prices led the rise in September.
INDIA WPI INFLATION Percent
India’s wholesale price inflation rose to 11.39% in September from 9.92% in August, according to provisional government data. The wholesale price index (WPI) tracks prices of goods traded in bulk, before they reach shops.
Fuel and power inflation reached 25.85%, up from 22.93% in August. Crude petroleum and natural gas inflation jumped to 57.32% from 34.41%. Food inflation was 8.66% and manufactured-product inflation 9.76%.
These are year-on-year figures: food inflation of 8.66% means bulk food prices were 8.66% higher than a year earlier, and the same reading applies to fuel and power. A price index follows the cost of a fixed group of goods over time, so it shows direction and speed rather than the price of any one item. Because the data are provisional, the numbers may change when the government publishes final figures.
Fuel and power was the sharpest contributor, but food and manufactured products also rose. All three major components of the index showed higher inflation than a year earlier.
The September figure is provisional and may be revised. The data cover September only: Brent crude has since closed at $109.86 a barrel on October 16, its highest level since May.
Wholesale prices can feed through to retail prices, which is why the index is watched.
Inflation means prices are going up. India's government tracks wholesale prices. These are prices for goods sold in large amounts, before they reach shops.
In September, wholesale inflation rose to about 11%. In August it was about 10%. This means bulk prices were about 11% higher than a year before.
Fuel and power prices rose the most. Their inflation reached about 26%. Food prices and the prices of factory-made goods also went up.
These numbers are early and may change later. Wholesale prices can push up prices in shops. That is why people watch them closely. Higher costs can also reach family budgets.
Science & Tech Astronomy
XLSSC 122 lies about 10.4 billion light-years away.
A galaxy cluster is a huge group of galaxies held together by gravity. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers studied XLSSC 122, about 10.4 billion light-years from Earth. It is the most distant known cluster showing strong gravitational lensing, the bending of light by mass, according to the Caltech IPAC release.
The cluster was found in 2014 in a survey by ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray spacecraft. Its lensing arcs were first seen by Webb, not Hubble. The team reports an unusually dense concentration of mass at its centre, which is at odds with standard cosmological models.
Dark matter is about five times more abundant than ordinary matter. The findings appear in three papers in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, with ScienceDaily reporting them on October 13.
The light we see left the cluster in “cosmic noon”, about 10 billion years ago, when star formation was up to 100 times the present-day rate. Weak lensing and X-ray and radio data indicate that the cluster is still merging.
The team also reports the earliest known detection of intracluster light, the diffuse glow from stars between galaxies. Its shape matches the dark matter distribution near the core. Kyle Finner of IPAC led the first paper. Researchers hope to find dozens or hundreds of similar early clusters in wide-area surveys.
The three papers are by Finner (first author, strong lensing), Zachary Scofield (weak lensing and the merger) and Hyungjin Joo (intracluster light). The work was also presented at the 248th American Astronomical Society meeting.
A galaxy cluster is a huge group of galaxies held together by gravity. Astronomers used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study one called XLSSC 122. It is about 10.4 billion light-years from Earth. The light we see from it left about 10 billion years ago.
The cluster's mass bends light. This is called gravitational lensing. It is the most distant known cluster that shows strong lensing.
The team found an unusually large amount of mass packed into the cluster's centre. This does not fit scientists' usual models of the universe. Data also show that the cluster is still merging, or coming together.
The findings appear in three science papers. Researchers hope to find many more early clusters like this one.
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Explainer
In the United States, a bill becomes law after passing both the House and the Senate and being signed by the president. The president can instead veto it, sending it back to Congress.
Congress can override a veto only if two-thirds of both the House and the Senate vote to do so. That is why a bill opposed by the president, such as the one on the diesel deal, faces a hard road.
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