Early Edition: October 26, 2026

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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the weekend. Here’s today’s news:

IRAN WAR

The U.S. government has put employees in the Middle East on heightened alert and moved to reduce personnel levels at embassies and consulates because intelligence shows Iran is in the advanced stage of planning attacks against U.S. citizens, U.S. officials told the New York Times on Friday. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton raised alarms to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo obtained by Axios. Edward Wong, Jonathan Swan, and Julian E. Barnes report; Barak Ravid reports.

Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam on Saturday said Iran remains open to talks with the United States under a Pakistan-brokered interim deal reached in June to end the conflict. Amiri Moghadam said Iran recently conveyed through Pakistan that it was prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the United States lifted its naval blockade, and accused President Trump of rejecting the proposal by insisting the blockade would continue. Munir Ahmed reports for AP News.

IRAN WAR – YEMEN

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis today said they had attacked Saudi Arabia’s East-West crude oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport. There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the Houthi attacks. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen earlier said it had destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, including one used to fire a missile towards Saudi’s capital Riyadh that the coalition said it had intercepted. Yomna Ehab and Eman Abouhassira report for Reuters.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

The Israeli military overnight on Saturday began a crackdown in the West Bank city of Hebron, a day after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers in the city. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate for the deadly shooting. The IDF were searching homes, making arrests, and using loudspeakers to tell residents of Hebron’s Deir Baha neighborhood to leave, according to Hebron’s mayor Yousef Jabari. Aaron Boxerman and Fatima AbdulKarim report for the New York Times.

WEST BANK DEVELOPMENTS

Italy’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday said five Italian activists who were detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank this week were released and repatriated. The women were detained along with other international activists on Thursday by Israeli police in Kiryat Arba while they sought to protect Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest in the Israel-occupied territory. Cristina Carlevaro reports for Reuters.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

U.S. First Lady Melania Trump on Friday said she brokered a “localized” ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky, slated to begin on Oct. 29. Melania said that “without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible.” Gregory Svirnovskiy reports for POLITICO.

Russia’s Defense Ministry today accused Ukraine of repeatedly striking the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine ahead of a planned local ceasefire this week. The ministry said Ukraine struck the town 18 times with artillery fire and carried out more than 120 drone attacks on it and the main roads around it in the last week. Reuters reports.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Saturday confirmed SpaceX restricted Ukraine’s Starlink internet service and accused Ukraine of violating SpaceX’s terms of service by using Starlink for military activity, but denied being responsible for a simultaneous issue with its U.S.-run counterpart Starshield. Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Serhii Beskrestnov said Musk’s post was “very strange.” Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara earlier said that the military was now recording a “stable connection.” Aleks Phillips reports for BBC News.

SUDANESE CIVIL WAR

Sudan’s state electricity company today said Rapid Support Forces drone strikes hit power stations in four states in southeast Sudan. The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Khalid Abdelaziz reports for Reuters.

The United Kingdom today sanctioned 15 Sudanese military commanders, militia leaders, and security officials from both sides of Sudan’s conflict, accusing them of waging sexual violence, torture, and attacks on civilians linked to the fall of the North Darfur capital al-Fashir. The United Kingdom said the action followed the publication of U.K.-funded research by the Center for Information Resilience, which documented what it described as systematic starvation and conflict-related sexual violence against civilians by both sides in the war. Sam Tabahriti reports for Reuters.

OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

A joint statement by the United Kingdom and Canada yesterday confirmed the United Kingdom will not join the Canada-led Defense, Security, and Resilience Bank. The two countries instead said they would develop a framework for cooperation between their respective defense-funding initiatives, establishing two distinct but complementary institutions to support each other on investment opportunities and strategic challenges. Anusha Shah, Nivedita Balu, William Schomberg, and Elizabeth Piper report for Reuters.

Serbia’s long-standing leader Aleksandar Vučić yesterday admitted defeat to a student-led protest movement in snap parliamentary elections which were called after two years of protests, which were triggered by the collapse of a canopy in front of Novi Sad station that killed 16 people. Preliminary figures gave the students 2.2 million votes and Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party 1.72 million votes. Vučić spent two terms as president and was leading his party with the aim of returning to the post of prime minister. André Rhoden-Paul and Jaroslav Lukiv report for BBC News.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been re-elected after yesterday’s second round vote-runoff against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who has not conceded. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court announced Lula had 51.79% of the votes. Bolsonaro refused to recognize the result, citing the extension of polling by two hours as “inexplicable,” despite both candidate’s campaign teams requesting the polling stations be kept open longer, and told supporters in the capital Brasilia that he would seek the annulment of the election. Lula and his supporters celebrated what they describe as a “historic victory” and a surprise turn-around. Marina Rossi, Leandro Prazeres, and Vanessa Buschschlüter report for BBC News.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado yesterday returned to the country after nearly a year in exile. Two government officials told the New York Times Machado entered Venezuela from neighboring Colombia. The Trump administration previously made clear in private exchanges with foreign officials that it did not support Machado’s return, according to U.S. officials, but on this occasion U.S. officials decided not to intervene. Julie Turkewitz, Edward Wong, and Adam Entous report.

A criminal investigation into Argentinian President Javier Milei over links to a cryptocurrency scandal on Friday was dropped. Milei denied promoting the newly launched cryptocoin $Libra, which collapsed shortly after he mentioned it in a social media post in Feb. 2025. The case was dismissed by a federal judge at the request of prosecutors, who said that the “reported events do not fall under a legal category,” and concluded that no “criminally relevant deception” had been proven. Adam Goldsmith reports for BBC News.

North Korea last week sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council, repeating accusations that South Korea fabricated a September landmine incident. North Korean armoured vehicles were spotted today near the border by a Reuters witness at an observatory in South Korea overlooking the border. Hongji Kim, Kyu-Seok Shim, and Joyce Lee report.

CLIMATE DEVELOPMENTS

Director General of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi on Friday said the agency’s annual report to the U.N. General Assembly expects the use of nuclear power could more than triple by 2060. The growth will be driven by electrification, data centers powered by AI, and “technology companies’ appetite for reliable, carbon-free power.” Edith M. Lederer reports for AP News.

U.S. AI DEVELOPMENTS

The FBI is looking at potentially adding an economic espionage charge against Saudi national and former OpenAI employee Abdulrahman Alfozan, a source told the Wall Street Journal. The source said the investigation centers on the possibility that Alfozan stole information from OpenAI in order to offer it to the Saudi government, even if he wasn’t recruited to do so. A lawyer for Alfozan said he hadn’t received any information from the government on potential additional charges. Dave Lawler and Angel Au-Yeung report.

An Anthropic spokesperson yesterday said Claude accessed publicly available Georgia voter data without human authorization. Claude accessed aggregate vote counts while on an internal statistics project. The spokesperson said Anthropic has “since put in place mitigations to block these kinds of actions.” Maria Curi and Alex Isenstadt report for Axios.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday launched a lawsuit against OpenAI and the company’s CEO Sam Altman, alleging they misled consumers about the safety of the company’s AI chatbot and failed to protect users from harm. The suit alleges that OpenAI’s business practices violated the state’s consumer protection and children’s online safety laws. Paxton said that with the rapid advancement of AI, “OpenAI has the responsibility to protect users and warn them of the many dangers of its platform.” Casey He reports for POLITICO.

Political candidates have been engineering their campaign messages to appeal to the AI chatbot that more voters have been using to answer questions about issues, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. Mike Stone reports.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report published on Oct. 14 observed that the Defense Department is building weapons and projects with AI capabilities that officials said don’t always closely adhere to the agency’s own guidelines for AI. When responding to the GAO, six of the ten officials surveyed said their teams had “identified risk(s)” with using the projects “in an operational environment.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly dismissed previous caution of AI tools and encouraged rapid autonomous innovation at the Pentagon. Chiara Eisner reports for NPR.

U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Sources told Reuters that U.S. administrations have been requesting SpaceX turn its Starlink service on or off in various countries for several years. During former President Biden’s term, the requests included switching off the service to prevent Iranian proxy militias in Yemen and Lebanon from using Starlink to communicate. Trump requested Musk make the service available in Iran following U.S.-Israeli strikes in 2025 and 2026, in hopes it would bolster internet access and communications for anti-government protestors. Erin Banco and Joey Roulette report.

Netanyahu in recent days pleaded with Trump to show more public support for his campaign, sources told Axios. The U.S. source said the White House sees Netanyahu’s aggressive lobbying as a “sign of desperation” and an indication that the Israeli leader thinks he’s trailing. Neta Molcho, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s Likud party, denied that Netanyahu asked Trump to support his campaign “in recent days or before his endorsement statement.” Trump yesterday evening issued another statement endorsing Netanyahu, mainly because of his position on Iran. Barak Ravid reports.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board yesterday published an article where they detailed that “sources from three countries confirm that the Trump Administration has advocated Viktor Orbán for the role of United Nations Secretary-General.” The United States encouraged the former Hungarian prime minister to enter the race, and a State Department official said Russia and China are believed to be supportive, with the plan being that the three countries endorse Orban as their joint candidate.

Japanese prosecutors yesterday indicted U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard on charges of robbery and murder of Anna Yagi in a hotel in Okinawa prefecture’s capital Naha. A Japanese public broadcaster said Ballard allegedly strangled the victim with a telephone cord and stole a backpack containing a wallet. Satoshi Sugiyama reports for Reuters.

Trump yesterday at a political rally in Port Huron, Michigan predicted a trade dispute with Canada would be resolved “soon.” Trump said Canada is “willing to give us anything at this moment.” At the rally, Trump also called Norway a “shit house country” and said Norwegian immigrants were not welcome in the United States because the Nobel committee, based in Norway’s capital Oslo, had not awarded him a peace prize. There was no indication that the Trump administration was adopting a new official policy on Norwegian immigrants. Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters; Bo Erickson and Jeffrey Dastin report for Reuters.

U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS

Amnesty International on Friday urged Sierra Leone to halt the expected repatriation of three people deported from the United States, saying they could face serious human rights violations if they returned to their home countries. The rights group said they had each lived in the United States for more than 20 years when they were removed by ICE, and that they all have children under-18 still in the United States. Ayen Deng Bior reports for Reuters.

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled 10-7 that ICE detainees being held in Texas have no rights to seek release on bond, even if they’ve been held for years while their immigration proceedings play out. The court concluded that Congress had intended to restrict the availability of release for people facing potential deportation, even if they have lived in the United States for years without criminal records and had attended their ICE check-ins. Kyle Cheney reports for POLITICO.

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Trump violated federal law by seizing control of the California National Guard last year and deploying troops to the streets of Los Angeles during immigration protests. The decision applied the reasoning the Supreme Court used when it ruled that Trump did not have the power to send National Guard troops into Chicago last year. Laurel Rosenhall reports for the New York Times.

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS

A federal Court of Appeals on Friday allowed portions of a Mississippi ban on DEI practices in public schools to go into effect. The parts of the law in question prevent public schools from requiring diversity training and maintaining DEI-related programs, courses, and offices. It also bans public schools from discussing a list of “divisive concepts” related to race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, and national origin. Public schools that violate the law could lose state funding. Sophie Bates reports for AP News.

The Catholic Archdiocese of New York on Friday reached an agreement to pay more than $800 million to settle claims from 1,300 people who said they had been sexually abused by its clergy members and lay leaders. In an email to the priests of the archdiocese shared with the New York Times, Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks on Saturday confirmed the agreement. Maya King and Jeffery C. Mays report.

The Justice Department last week charged former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, alleging they lied to Congress in 2023 about the bureau’s probe into Hunter Biden, including its handling of Hunter’s laptop in the run-up to the 2020 election. The pair worked on the FBI’s now-dissolved Foreign Influence Task Force, and each face one count of making a false statement to Congress. Casey He reports for POLITICO.

The DOJ on Friday announced that FBI investigators arrested government contractor Ian Brinksman and charged him with leaking classified national defense information. Brinksman is accused of leaking the information to his girlfriend, who writes an online publication on Substack. Ford McCracken reports for The Hill.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTION

The DOJ on Friday sent letters to local election officials across California demanding they help identify potential noncitizens on their voter rolls and set aside their ballots. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles told the New York Times that the letter also said local officials would “risk significant federal scrutiny” if they failed to comply with DOJ demands. A panel of federal appellate judges yesterday questioned the timing, constitutionality, and authority of the DOJ’s demand. Laurel Rosenhall and Shawn Hubler report; Rebecca Boone reports for AP News.

Catholic Archbishop James R. Golka of Denver yesterday told a local Catholic publication that it was never his intention for a prayer meeting between Trump and several Roman Catholic bishops to be used as an endorsement. Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines wrote afterward that “I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple, like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purposes.” Mitch Smith reports for the New York Times.

Andrew Gradison, a senior adviser at Trump’s Veterans Health Administration, this month told a conference for psychedelics enthusiasts that he is eager to ramp up the VA’s capacity to give psychedelic drugs to as many as 2.1 million veterans with mental illnesses like PTSD or depression. No government regulator has deemed psychedelics safe or effective for mental illness. Amanda Friedman reports for POLITICO.

Trump yesterday said he is considering moving the White House press corps from its historic location. Trump said he will use the current White House press corps location “for very badly needed space,” but will not build “a swimming pool in the White House Briefing Room.” Mira Bhakta reports for The Hill.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION

The DOJ on Thursday sued Alaska to delay certification of election results if incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) loses. The Republicans accused Democrats of trying to confuse voters by planting a candidate with the same name, and the suit argued that an election result may be “impacted by voter confusion if: (1) Senator Sullivan does not win the election; and (2) had all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast instead for Senator Sullivan and Alaska’s rank-choice process played out accordingly, Senator Sullivan would have won the election.” Trump on Friday said he personally directed the DOJ to file the lawsuit. Avery Lotz reports for Axios; Ben Johansen reports for POLITICO.

Attorney General Todd Blanche yesterday defended the DOJ’s lawsuit in Alaska. Earlier in the week he had said the DOJ could get involved in the vote certification process in a “doomsday” scenario. Blanche denied the idea that the suit was setting the stage for Trump to challenge the outcome of the midterm elections, and framed the case as a test of whether Alaska had violated federal law and the Constitution by permitting a potentially confusing ballot process to continue. Willem Marx reports for NPR.

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