International News Bulletin — October 22, 2026

Politics

• Putin frees a US citizen and agrees to new talks with Ukraine – Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher jailed for allegedly fighting for Ukraine, as US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, Al Jazeera and France 24 reported. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow was ready in principle to resume three-way talks with Ukraine and the United States around mid-November, possibly in Abu Dhabi, according to France 24, Dawn and Al Jazeera, and Volodymyr Zelensky said of the talks: “We are in favour of it.” Russian missiles struck Kyiv overnight into Thursday and sent residents to shelters, France 24 reported.
• Pakistan, Qatar, Türkiye and Indonesia sign the Badr defence pact – Defence ministers and officials from the four countries signed the “Badr Memorandum of Understanding” in Qatar on Wednesday, Dawn reported, citing Reuters and the Turkish defence ministry, and Anadolu published a graphic on the accord the same day. The text covers joint production, technology transfer, joint research and development and training exchanges, and other countries may join under criteria the four agree. Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif wrote that Pakistan “places great importance on strengthening defence cooperation with trusted partners”.
• US embassy accuses Canada of election interference before the midterms – The US embassy in Canada released a fact sheet on Wednesday saying the Canadian government “brushes off concerns about potential interference in U.S. elections” ahead of the November 3 midterms, Al Jazeera reported. The document cited trade remarks by Industry Minister Mélanie Joly and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Al Jazeera noted that the embassy did not explain how those actions amounted to interference. Joly has rejected the accusation and said on October 14 that her US meetings were meant “to attract investments”.
• Irish lawmakers vote to drop UN approval for peacekeeping missions – Ireland’s Dáil voted 79 to 71 on Wednesday for a bill removing the UN approval requirement from the “triple lock” that governs sending more than 12 Irish troops abroad, RTÉ and France 24 reported. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the UN Security Council “is no longer functional; it’s paralysed”, according to France 24, while Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called the bill a “profound betrayal” and repeated her call for a referendum. RTÉ said the bill moves to committee stage, most likely next month, and is expected to be enacted before the end of the year.
• Egypt rejects Libya’s endorsement of its maritime deal with Türkiye – Egypt said on Wednesday that the 2019 Libya-Türkiye maritime agreement, endorsed on Tuesday by Libya’s eastern-based House of Representatives, “constitutes a clear infringement upon Egypt’s sovereign rights” and was “null and void”, The New Arab reported. The EU had also called the deal null and void, citing the rights of Greece and Cyprus, according to the same outlet. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Anadolu in Brussels that the agreement was legitimate, adding: “We understand why these countries are reacting.”

Economy

• Asian shares fall as worries over AI spending return – On Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.69 percent to 52,856.09, the S&P 500 gained 0.58 percent to 7,757.17 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.05 percent, according to Yahoo Finance, and AFP said all three main US indexes closed higher. In Thursday morning trade Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down between 2.4 and 2.8 percent, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 between 1.1 and 1.6 percent and Seoul’s Kospi between 2 and 2.6 percent in AFP and Yahoo Finance snapshots, with AFP citing concern over the cost of AI investment and mixed results from Meta and Tesla. Brent crude rose more than 1 percent to about $110.30 to $110.50 a barrel after attacks on a Saudi oil field and Dammam airport, AFP and Yahoo Finance reported.
• New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion over privacy – Judge Francis Mathew of New Mexico’s state district court on Wednesday ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found that the company had misled users about data privacy, Al Jazeera, France 24 and NBC News reported. Al Jazeera said jurors had found more than 43 million violations of state consumer protection law and that Attorney General Raúl Torrez plans to put the money into an education fund. Meta called the penalty “a tax on speech” and said: “We are confident we will prevail on appeal.”
• Gulf states pledge extra diesel to France during Macron’s tour – Saudi Arabia agreed on Wednesday to supply France with additional diesel “for as many months as necessary”, the Élysée said, as Emmanuel Macron made an unannounced visit to Riyadh to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Al Jazeera and France 24 reported. The UAE and Bahrain had committed to a combined 200,000 tonnes a month and Qatar to two terawatt-hours of liquefied natural gas a month, according to France 24. Al Jazeera put France’s total diesel commitments at 295,000 tonnes a month, just over 10 percent of its consumption.
• Jio Platforms opens bidding on a $3.2 billion share sale – Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, opened its initial public offering on Wednesday, seeking about $3.2 billion, Nikkei Asia reported. The company is offering 270 million new shares at 1,065 to 1,119 rupees each, and at the top of the range the sale would pass the $2.9 billion raised by Hyundai Motor India in 2024, India’s largest listing until now, Reuters reported. Listing is targeted about a week after the offer opens.
• Electronic Arts closes its BioWare studio and cuts about 400 jobs – Electronic Arts told employees on Wednesday that it is closing BioWare, the Edmonton studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and halting early work on the next Mass Effect game, Reuters reported via Dawn. Bloomberg, citing an unnamed source, put the cuts at about 400 jobs, roughly 3 percent of EA’s staff, including about 50 at BioWare. EA was taken private in August in a $55 billion deal led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, according to Reuters.

World News

• Governments take websites offline over critical PHP security flaws – Government bodies in France, the Netherlands, Finland and other European countries took websites offline on Wednesday while patching two critical flaws in the PHP programming language, Reuters via Dawn and Al Jazeera reported. Security firm Wiz said the bugs, found with the help of AI models, had “remained hidden in the PHP codebase for more than a decade”, and PHP developers released fixes the same day. The US National Security Agency advised taking sites offline if they could not be updated immediately, Al Jazeera reported, and tech firms warned that some hackers were already exploiting the flaws, according to Reuters.
• Attacks in Saudi Arabia kill three as US orders staff departures – A late Wednesday attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed one person and injured eight, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said, according to Anadolu and AFP via RTÉ, and the energy ministry said debris from a drone intercepted near the Shaybah oil field killed two workers, Dawn and RTÉ reported. The US State Department ordered non-emergency staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, with spokesman Tommy Pigott saying the Houthis had “increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia”, Al Jazeera and The New Arab reported. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree denied carrying out “deep” operations in Saudi territory, Dawn reported.
• UN appeals for early action against a possibly record El Niño – The World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday that tropical Pacific temperatures may reach 3.8°C above average between November and January, and its chief Celeste Saulo said the event “could be unprecedented in strength”, AFP via Dawn and UN News reported. AFP said that would exceed the 2.6°C recorded in 2015-2016. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher released more than $50 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund for 11 countries including Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan, and warned that 50 million people could face increased hunger, according to both outlets.
• Vatican doctors say Pope Leo needs no further cancer treatment – Pope Leo XIV’s doctors said on Wednesday that a follow-up assessment after the removal of a lung adenocarcinoma showed the cancer had not spread and that no further therapy was needed, Al Jazeera and France 24 reported. Al Jazeera dated the operation to October 13. Surgeon Stefano Margaritora said there was “no clinical reason” to cancel the pope’s November 6 to 17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.

Bulletin automatically generated on October 22, 2026.