International News Bulletin — October 20, 2026

Politics

• Benny Gantz quits Israel’s election race eight days before the vote – Former army chief Benny Gantz withdrew his Blue and White party from Israel’s October 27 parliamentary election on Monday after opinion polls consistently put it below the 3.25 percent threshold for entering the Knesset, Al Jazeera and Ynet reported. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot called the decision “correct” and “responsible”, according to Al Jazeera, while US Vice President JD Vance declined to follow President Donald Trump in endorsing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying “I’m not getting involved in Israeli elections”, Al Jazeera and Anadolu reported. Polls point to a tight race in which neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition alliance appears on track for a majority, according to Al Jazeera.
• Trump open to three-way meeting with Putin and Xi next month – President Donald Trump said on Monday he would be open to talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as next month, around the APEC summit in China, after the Kremlin said the idea had come up in talks, Reuters reported via Nikkei Asia and Dawn. Trump said such a meeting would be “to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization”, while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned on X that a Russia-China-US format would “encourage Putin to continue this war”, according to Dawn and France 24. Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Patriot interceptors already paid for by European countries were awaiting Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s signature, a delay also reported by the Washington Post, according to AFP and Anadolu.
• France imposes local curfews after a weekend of riots and looting – French authorities imposed night-time curfews in several cities on Monday, including parts of central Paris around Place de la République and Les Halles, where demonstrations were also banned from 20:00 to 06:00, after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked prefects to introduce localised measures, France 24 and Anadolu reported. Lille, Douai, Wattignies and Denain were placed under a two-night curfew, while Nice and the Gironde department around Bordeaux restricted unaccompanied minors at night, according to both outlets. Lecornu accused the “ultra-left movement” of seeking to “orchestrate deep unrest across the country” ahead of next year’s presidential election, France 24 reported.
• Egypt’s parliament postpones vote on military support for Saudi Arabia – Egypt’s House of Representatives on Monday postponed to October 26 a vote authorising the armed forces to help defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks, a measure that would let President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi approve any Saudi request for assistance, Al Jazeera reported. The opposition Egyptian Social Democratic Party told its lawmakers to abstain, citing a lack of detail on the mission’s goals, duration, cost and risks, while Sisi said “we’re talking only about defence”. Sending troops on a combat mission abroad requires a two-thirds majority in parliament.
• Brazil’s electoral court gives Meta 24 hours to prove neutrality – Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court on Monday gave Meta 24 hours to show it is treating President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro equally ahead of the October 25 presidential run-off, and raised the daily fine for non-compliance from 500,000 to 1 million reais, France 24 and Anadolu reported. Lula’s campaign alleges that Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is suppressing its content and that WhatsApp’s AI tool limited Lula-related election material but not Bolsonaro’s, according to France 24. Meta denies favouring either side.

Economy

• Saudi Arabia postpones its “Davos in the Desert” conference to 2027 – The organisers of Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative said the tenth edition of the flagship investment forum, due from October 26 to 29, would be postponed to 2027, Reuters and Al Jazeera reported. The decision follows weeks of Houthi strikes on Saudi military, energy and civilian infrastructure, including Riyadh’s international airport, which have killed at least 18 people, according to both outlets. Government agencies in Riyadh and companies in the King Abdullah Financial District have told staff to work from home, Al Jazeera reported.
• Asian chip stocks slide even as Wall Street tech rebounds – Seoul’s Kospi was down between 2.8 and 3.5 percent in Tuesday morning trade and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 had lost 0.6 percent by 02:30 GMT, as investors weighed the gap between current earnings and future AI spending, according to AFP and Yahoo Finance. On Monday the Nasdaq Composite gained about 1.1 percent and the S&P 500 about 0.4 percent, led by chipmakers and by Amazon after Morgan Stanley named it a top pick, while the Dow ended down 0.1 percent at 51,966.03, Yahoo Finance and AFP reported. Brent crude traded near $109.7 a barrel in Asian hours, AFP said.
• Musk pledges one SpaceX share to every American child next year – Elon Musk wrote on X on Monday that “next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America”, calling it “the first of many” without explaining how the scheme would work, AFP and Yahoo Finance reported. About 73 million Americans are under 18, according to Census Bureau data cited by both outlets, and Bloomberg reported that Musk could use Trump Accounts as the vehicle for the gifts. SpaceX shares rose about 1 percent in Monday morning trade, Yahoo Finance said.
• Pakistan cuts last fiscal year’s growth estimate to 3.65 percent – Pakistan’s National Accounts Committee on Monday revised GDP growth for the fiscal year that ended in June 2026 down to 3.65 percent, from a May projection of 3.70 percent that had itself been cut from 4 percent, Dawn reported. Agriculture growth was revised up to 3.50 percent while industry and services were revised down to 3.34 and 3.81 percent, and the economy was valued at $450.4 billion, according to the committee’s figures.

World News

• Drone strike on a West Kordofan transport hub kills scores in Sudan – A drone struck a transport hub in al-Dibab, in Sudan’s West Kordofan state, on Sunday evening as villagers gathered after market day, killing 80 people, according to a medical source and witnesses cited by AFP and Al Jazeera. Of 47 wounded taken to al-Mujlad, 30 later died, a medical source said, and the Rapid Support Forces’ self-declared administration, Tasis, accused the army of the attack. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday the UN was “alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country”, Al Jazeera reported.
• WFP to end monthly food aid for half a million Gazans – The World Food Programme said on Monday it would stop monthly assistance to about 500,000 people in Gaza because of a funding shortfall, cutting its caseload from 1.6 million to 1.1 million, roughly half the population, AFP and The New Arab reported. Food rations will be halved and cash support reduced for 75,000 families, while about 1.4 million people remain acutely food insecure, according to the agency. WFP says it needs $450 million over six months for Gaza and the West Bank, and acting executive director Carl Skau told Reuters that “life is still brutal here”.
• Kenyan court convicts cult leader Paul Mackenzie over 191 deaths – A court in Mombasa on Monday found self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie and 28 co-accused guilty of murder over the deaths of 191 people, all but one of them children, linked to his Shakahola ranch, Al Jazeera and Capital FM reported. Prosecutors said Mackenzie “initiated and directed” extreme fasting among his followers, and Kenyan authorities say more than 400 people died in the Shakahola case overall. Sentencing is set for November 6.
• Floods in eastern Spain kill four after record downpours – Torrential rain killed at least four people in eastern Spain, three in the Valencia region and one in Catalonia, after some areas received up to 700 litres per square metre in 24 hours, according to regional authorities cited by France 24 and Al Jazeera. Security forces carried out more than 400 rescues in the Valencia region, government representative Pilar Bernabé said, and about 100 municipalities were told to stay indoors for several hours on Monday. The military emergency unit was deployed, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pledged the government’s “full support”.
• Japan launches MMX probe to bring back samples from Phobos – Japan’s space agency JAXA launched its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft from the Tanegashima Space Center before dawn on Tuesday, and officials declared success about an hour later when it separated from the rocket’s upper stage, AFP reported. The probe is due to reach Mars in 2027, collect at least 10 grams of material from the moon Phobos and return it to Earth in 2031, according to AFP and the European Space Agency. “We are part of the first sample return mission from the Martian system,” said Markus Grebenstein of the German Space Agency.

Bulletin automatically generated on October 20, 2026.