International News Bulletin — October 16, 2026

Politics

• Trump calls Ukraine’s renewed refinery strikes “a disgrace” – US President Donald Trump told Newsmax that Ukraine’s renewed attacks on Russian oil refineries were “a disgrace” that drove up global energy prices, adding that “I find Zelensky to be more difficult to deal with than Putin.” President Volodymyr Zelensky had told the Financial Times that Kyiv’s pause on refinery strikes was over because Moscow was not observing the energy ceasefire Trump had announced, AFP reported. Zelensky met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European leaders in Brussels on Thursday and was due to join an EU summit on Friday.
• Houthi missile and drone attack on Aden palace kills five – Yemen’s Health Minister Qassem Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 wounded on Thursday when missiles and drones struck the area of the presidential palace in Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government. The Houthis said they targeted a “Saudi military operations headquarters” there, a claim on which Saudi Arabia and the coalition had not commented, according to Xinhua and AFP. Earlier on Thursday the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted a cruise missile over Medina, and the Houthis denied targeting the holy city.
• Somalia sets 2027 election dates as former presidents object – The head of Somalia’s electoral commission, Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan, announced on Thursday that parliamentary elections will be held on April 15, 2027 and the presidential vote on May 15, 2027, Al Jazeera reported. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s term ended earlier this year, and his government declared a “transition period” through a May constitutional amendment that opposition parties boycotted. Former president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo called the decision a “dangerous threat to Somalia’s statehood and future”, while the government urged all parties to engage in good faith.
• Iraq’s parliament completes Ali al-Zaidi’s cabinet after five months – Iraqi lawmakers approved three deputy prime ministers and 11 ministers on Thursday in a session attended by 261 members, filling posts left vacant since Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi took office in May. The vote raised the number of ministers with parliamentary confidence from 14 to 25, including Interior Minister Yasir Sakhil al-Maliki and Defence Minister Nayef al-Shammari, according to Anadolu and Xinhua. Zaidi said “the Cabinet lineup has been completed”, although Anadolu noted that no nominee was approved for the Ministry of Migration and Displacement.
• Russia detains Novaya Gazeta editor Sergei Sokolov after home search – Russian authorities detained Sergei Sokolov, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, on Thursday and took him to Moscow’s Investigative Committee after searching his home, the paper said on social media. Novaya Gazeta said it lost contact with Sokolov around noon, shortly before he was due to chair an editorial meeting, and that a lawyer was on his way, AFP reported. Russian authorities classify the newspaper as a “foreign agent”.

Economy

• US producer prices jump 1.3% as retail sales rise 0.8% – The US producer price index for final demand rose 1.3% in September and 6.3% over 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Thursday. Retail and food services sales rose 0.8% to $745.0 billion and were up 6.3% from a year earlier, the Census Bureau said, while sales excluding autos and gasoline rose 0.2%. The releases followed Wednesday’s consumer price data showing inflation at 3.7% in September.
• Wall Street and Asian stocks rebound after tech-led sell-off – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 1.08% at 52,177.69 on Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.33% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.08%, as falling Treasury yields offset the inflation data, according to Yahoo Finance and Xinhua. In Friday trading Seoul’s Kospi was up about 2.7% and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 between 1.5% and 1.8%, according to AFP and Yahoo Finance data, after the two markets fell 7.6% and 4.9% on Thursday, AFP reported. Traders were awaiting remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, AFP said.
• Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports surge 68.4% on AI demand – Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports rose 68.4% year on year in September after 46.1% in August, Enterprise Singapore data released on Friday showed, according to Xinhua. Electronics shipments rose 107.6%, which the agency linked to “robust demand related to artificial intelligence”, while non-electronic exports rose 54.2%. The figures follow advance estimates this week showing third-quarter growth of 5.4%.
• MSCI weighs demoting Indonesia from emerging to standalone market – Index provider MSCI said on Thursday it was considering downgrading the MSCI Indonesia Index from emerging market to standalone market status and opened a consultation, Nikkei Asia reported. FTSE Russell, by contrast, reaffirmed Indonesia’s emerging market status. In June MSCI extended its review of Indonesia to November, citing opacity in shareholding structures and suspected coordinated trading, according to the New Straits Times and Malay Mail.
• France and Germany reach provisional deal to ease car emissions rules – France and Germany agreed on Thursday to loosen proposed EU car CO2 rules, dropping a requirement to offset the residual 10% of emissions under the Commission’s plan to replace the 2035 combustion-engine ban with a 90% cut, AFP reported citing diplomats. The deal, which still needs final sign-off from Berlin, would let cars running on renewable fuels count as “zero-emission” and limit a “made in Europe” procurement scheme to the 27 member states, with opt-ins for Britain and Norway. Germany won the looser carbon targets and France the narrower scheme, according to the report.

World News

• School roof collapse in Peshawar kills more than 30 people – A roof collapsed onto classrooms at the private Al-Khair school in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, on Thursday, killing a female teacher and pupils mostly aged between four and 14, including 12 girls. Lady Reading Hospital figures cited by AFP put the toll at 33 and Al Jazeera reported at least 35, while Dawn said the hospital revised its count to 30 students and a teacher. Police said the building’s structure was weak and the owner was arrested, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi ordered a safety audit of schools across the province.
• Teenage gunman kills three children and a teacher in Oregon – A 16-year-old shot dead three children aged 5, 8 and 11 and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, and critically wounded a seven-year-old and a 54-year-old teacher, police said. The gunman forced entry by shooting at locked doors and was killed inside the school by a civilian who followed him in, according to Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz. A law enforcement official told AP the weapon was a pump-action shotgun bought by the suspect’s mother, France 24 reported.
• Israel halts commercial goods into Gaza amid dispute over fees – COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza, said no commercial goods had entered the territory for two days, attributing the halt to merchants objecting to a 10,000-shekel fee per truck allegedly imposed by Hamas and a demand that 30% of sales be made in cash. Gaza’s government media office called the claims a “blatant disinformation campaign”, saying the fee was a voluntary contribution to an aid fund, and the head of Gaza’s private truckers’ union said Israel had imposed the restrictions. COGAT said the halt would cut daily truck entries to about 300, half the 600 aid trucks required under the US-mediated agreement, according to RTÉ.
• Seven missing after suspected drone attack on tanker off Romania – Seven crew members were missing after the San Marino-flagged tanker Wine Trader, with 12 people on board, caught fire near the mouth of the Sulina Canal early on Thursday in a suspected drone attack, Romania’s naval authority said. A second tanker, the Comoros-flagged Yara J, also caught fire in the same area, two days after the cargo ship HS Dignity sank off Bulgaria. NATO officials said the attacks would be on the agenda of next week’s ambassadors’ meeting, while Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said there was no solid evidence the drones were Russian.

Bulletin automatically generated on October 16, 2026.