Palestine

• Killed and wounded in Gaza: Over the past 24 hours, five Palestinians were killed—four in new Israeli attacks and one due to wounds sustained in an earlier attack—and 11 injured across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

  • The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 74,250 killed, with 175,278 injured. Since October 11, 2025, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,467 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 5,161, while 836 bodies have been recovered.

• Israel continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza three years into the genocide: Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and strikes across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Wednesday, according to WAFA.

  • A Palestinian Civil Defence member was shot and killed by Israeli forces during an attempt to evacuate people wounded in Jabalia.

  • A young boy was shot and killed amid heavy Israeli fire east of Khan Younis.

  • Another Palestinian was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Khan Younis, while a fourth was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp in the city.

• Palestinian killed, dozens detained as Israeli forces and settlers attack across the occupied West Bank:

  • Nablus: A 44-year-old Palestinian was killed and nine others wounded, one seriously, after Israeli settlers accompanied by Israeli forces attacked olive harvesters from Burqa in the Ramin plain between Nablus and Tulkarm on Wednesday, according to WAFA.

    • Seven other Palestinians were injured after being beaten by Israeli forces in Nablus. Israeli forces also imposed a curfew on Nablus city, raided homes and detained several Palestinians, including journalist Umair Staitiyeh, while turning Karman School into a field interrogation center.

    • In Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya, settlers accompanied by Israeli forces erected dozens of Israeli flags between Palestinian homes and businesses.

  • Ramallah: Israeli forces imposed a curfew on Burqa, east of Ramallah as settlers raided the village.

    • In Al-Mughayyir, settlers attacked Palestinian homes and set fire to a vehicle belonging to foreign journalists who were in the village documenting Israeli and settler attacks.

  • Bethlehem: Settlers accompanied by Israeli forces entered Palestinian farmland in Al-Minya, southeast of Bethlehem, and stole harvested olives. Landowners have reportedly been prevented from reaching their land for more than a month.

  • Jenin: A Palestinian man was shot and wounded by Israeli forces during a raid in central Jenin. Israeli forces also closed several gates and roads across the governorate, raided homes, demolished a memorial in Ya’bad, and removed photographs of Palestinians killed by Israel.

  • East Jerusalem: Israeli forces carried out a large-scale operation across Beit Anan, Beit Duqqu, Biddu, Qatanna, Al-Qubeiba, Beit Surik, and Beit Iksa northwest of East Jerusalem, detaining or arresting around 50 Palestinians, raiding homes and imposing closures.

    • In Anata, Israeli forces and settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives, injuring several and arresting a number of people, while settlers uprooted around 100 productive olive trees.

    • Settlers also cut down around 50 olive trees in Mikhmas, while Israeli Nature Authority crews uprooted trees on Palestinian land in Wadi Al-Rababa in Silwan.

• More than 20,500 students killed in Gaza over three years of Israeli genocide: More than 20,500 school and university students were killed in Gaza during three years of Israel’s war on the Strip since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

  • The ministry said more than 19,189 school students and 1,386 university students were killed, while 28,586 school students and 3,082 university students were injured.

  • Israeli attacks also killed 805 school staff and 246 university lecturers and staff, and completely destroyed more than 179 government schools, more than 105 UNRWA schools and over 63 university buildings in Gaza.

• Palestinian female prisoner held in isolation for 46 days: Israeli prison authorities transferred 33-year-old Palestinian administrative detainee Bushra Al-Tawil to the isolation wing at Ohalei Oz Prison in Beersheba after 46 consecutive days in isolation, Palestinian prisoners’ organizations said Wednesday.

  • Al-Tawil, who has been detained without charge or trial since February, was initially isolated at Damon Prison before being transferred to Neve Tirza and then Ohalei Oz.

  • The groups said lawyers have repeatedly sought permission to visit her but have been denied access. Under the UN Nelson Mandela Rules, solitary confinement lasting more than 15 consecutive days is prohibited.

• Hamas marks third anniversary of October 7: Hamas marked the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, describing it as a “historic and honorable milestone in our ongoing struggle” and saying it brought the Palestinian cause back to global attention after “decades of neglect, acquiescence and complicity” with Israeli policies.

  • The group described October 7 as a “natural response” to decades of Israeli occupation, siege, killings and denial of Palestinian rights, as well as efforts to assert Israeli control over Al-Aqsa Mosque. “The conflict with the enemy did not begin on that day, nor have its final chapters yet been written,” Hamas said.

  • Hamas said it and other Palestinian factions remain committed to their obligations under the Gaza ceasefire agreement and called on the U.S. and mediators to compel Israel to implement its commitments, including “a comprehensive and complete end to all forms of aggression,” humanitarian relief, reconstruction and “the full withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.

• Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbi makes comments critical of Zionism, sparking backlash: Rabbi Dov Lando, the 96-year-old head of the Slabodka Yeshiva and a leading authority in Israel’s Lithuanian Haredi community, said in footage aired Monday by Israel’s Channel 12 that Jews “could live well with the Arabs without a state” and that “it would have been quite good if the Arabs ruled here.” The footage was recorded about a year and a half ago at his home in Bnei Brak.

  • He also said Zionism “made the Arabs hate us” and brought “physical disasters, not only spiritual ones” on Jews.

  • He is an important religious authority for Degel HaTorah, part of the United Torah Judaism alliance that has been central to Netanyahu’s governments.

  • Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Lando’s comments “shame and disgrace” and attempted to link them to his political rival, Netanyahu. Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot and Member of the Knesset Avigdor Liberman also condemned Lando’s comments.

• EU “ready to deploy” observers for Palestinian legislative elections in November: EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday the bloc is “ready to deploy” election observers for the Palestinian legislative elections Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has set for November 28.

  • Kallas, who spoke with Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al-Sheikh on Tuesday, said Palestinians have the right to “credible, inclusive and transparent” elections and that, after nearly 20 years without a parliamentary vote, the polls would offer “a long-overdue opportunity to renew the legitimacy of Palestinian institutions.”

  • Hamas won the last Palestinian parliamentary elections, held in January 2006, securing a massive and unexpected majority and defeating the long-ruling Fatah movement.

  • At the time, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh attempted to reassure the international community that the group was a “mature movement” that was politically open. Yet the victory was followed almost immediately by severe Israeli economic and military measures against the Hamas-led government.

Yemen

• Missiles strike near Aden airport; Ansarallah says it targeted Saudi military supplies: Two ballistic missiles and several explosive-laden drones targeted the area around Aden International Airport early Wednesday, according to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government. Ansarallah later said it launched ballistic missiles claiming to have been targeting Saudi military supplies that had arrived at Badr Camp, adjacent to the airport.

  • Ansarallah’s military spokesperson claimed the attack killed and wounded a number of Saudi officers at Badr Camp and warned against using the civilian airport for “any military purposes.”

  • Yemen’s Transport Ministry said one missile landed near the runway just “minutes” before Yemenia flight 603 from Cairo was due to land, forcing the aircraft to divert to Jeddah.

  • Passengers and airport staff were evacuated, while two aircraft on the ground were moved after drones were detected over Aden. The airport later resumed flights.

• Ansarallah targets Saudi capital with ballistic missile: The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Wednesday that it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile north of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, which it said was launched by Ansarallah.

  • Ansarallah later said its forces had targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile, claiming it struck its target and disrupted air traffic.

  • A coalition spokesperson said intelligence systems were tracking the missile’s launch platform over the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and that the coalition intended to target and destroy it.

• Saudi-backed Yemeni forces claim gains in Taiz highlands; Ansarallah repels advance in Al-Jawf: Forces aligned with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said they had tightened control over the highest peak in Jabal Habashi district and launched an offensive to retake the mountainous Al-Wazi’iyah district from Ansarallah.

  • The fighting is part of a broader battle for the high ground east of Mocha and Bab al-Mandab, where control of mountain positions provides a strategic advantage over routes toward the Red Sea coast.

  • Ansarallah officials, meanwhile, maintain that the group remains in control of Mocha and Bab al-Mandab.

  • Separately, Ansarallah’s military spokesperson said its forces repelled Saudi-backed forces attempting to advance on positions in eastern Al-Jawf governorate, claiming they targeted troop concentrations with ballistic missiles and drones.

  • Ansarallah also claimed it shot down a Saudi CH-4 armed reconnaissance drone over Al-Jawf.

• More than 201,000 displaced by fighting in Yemen: More than 201,000 people were forced from their homes by the latest fighting in Yemen, with nearly all displaced since September 1, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Wednesday.

  • The number has surged from 76,000 in mid-September to 201,217 people, or 33,776 households, and now spans 10 governorates.

  • Taiz is the hardest hit, accounting for 57% of the total displaced. More than 3,700 people have also fled Yemen by sea to Djibouti, most of them women and children.

  • “People are running for their lives and finding nowhere safe to go,” IOM Director General said, warning that Yemen’s humanitarian response plan is only 20% funded.

Iran

• Iran says U.S. attacks damaged 111 petrochemical and pharmaceutical facilities: U.S. military attacks on Iran had damaged 111 petrochemical and pharmaceutical facilities, disrupting supply chains and affecting Tehran’s implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, Iran’s representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Tuesday.

  • Farajvand told the OPCW Executive Council in The Hague that the attacks damaged 60 petrochemical complexes, 44 pharmaceutical factories and seven other pharmaceutical facilities.

• Vance demands Iran curb uranium enrichment to end war: U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity to secure an agreement with Washington.

  • “If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel?” Vance told Reuters, calling enrichment a “basic threshold issue.”

  • He said Washington remained open to an agreement but would demand concrete steps: “We’re not going to trade words for actions.”

  • Iran has reiterated that the nuclear file is not part of its current discussions with Washington and that it is not considering opening such negotiations while the war continues.

  • Vance claimed the U.S. was in contact with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, but added that “it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions.”

• Rubio claims Iran has lost “complete control” of Strait of Hormuz: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed Wednesday that Iran has “lost complete control” of the Strait of Hormuz and said oil flows through the critical waterway had returned to pre-closure levels, despite continued attacks on commercial vessels.

  • “The Strait of Hormuz is open and the quantities of oil exiting through it now are exactly the same as the quantities that were exiting before its closure,” Rubio said at a news conference in Athens.

  • His comments came as IRGC adviser Mohammad Reza Naqdi said Iran would soon completely block transit routes in the Strait it considers illegal, including passages he said had been created by blasting through rocky areas and were being used by small boats smuggling oil.

  • Rubio also said the U.S. has the military “ability to provide security” in the Middle East, while accusing Iran of seeking to drive U.S. forces from the region and build a conventional military capability “so massive that they would become untouchable.”

• Three Iranian men on trial in London accused of spying on Iran International journalists for Tehran: Prosecutors told a London jury Tuesday that three Iranian citizens surveilled British-based journalists at Iran International, a Persian-language station opposed to the Iranian government and based in London, on behalf of Iran’s foreign intelligence service between August 2024 and March 2025.

  • Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones claimed these men were part of an effort to subject one or more of these journalists to “serious violence, no doubt as retribution for their criticism of the Iranian regime,” with one of the men allegedly planning to carry out the attack.

  • The three allegedly researched at least two journalists, visited addresses linked to them and took photos and videos. Each denies the charges against them.

  • Emlyn also said that two of the men told police they did not know they were helping Iranian intelligence, while one said he did know the purpose of the activities but clarified that he was “bullied or threatened into doing what he did.”

Lebanon

• Israeli drone pursues residents in southern Lebanon as ceasefire violations continue: An Israeli drone pursued Lebanese residents to their homes in the town of Yater in the Bint Jbeil district of southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

  • Israeli artillery also shelled Wadi Zibqin in the Tyre (Sour) district.

• Hezbollah marks third anniversary of October 7: Hezbollah said Wednesday that three years of Israel’s war on Gaza had failed to eliminate Hamas and other Palestinian factions or produce lasting security, in a statement marking the third anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. Hezbollah opened a support front against Israel from southern Lebanon on October 8, 2023, a day after the attack.

  • Hezbollah described the October 7 attack as a “justified and legitimate act of resistance,” arguing that it returned Palestine to the center of international attention and disrupted what it called the region’s “defeatist normalization trajectory.”

  • The group reiterated its support for Palestinian factions, while issuing a warning to governments across the region. “Silence, accommodation and appeasement of the enemy and its allies will only lead to the undermining of their rule, their weakening, and enabling the enemy to determine the future of their countries and peoples,” Hezbollah said.

U.S. News

• U.S. trade deficit tops $100 billion in August, first time since March 2025: The U.S. trade deficit rose $12.7 billion from July to $105.6 billion in August, a 17-month high, according to Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis data released Tuesday. Imports grew 2.9 percentage points faster than exports.

  • Crude oil exports rose $2 billion, and imports of crude oil, nonmonetary gold, and semiconductors rose $3.3 billion, $3.1 billion, and $2.4 billion, respectively.

• Trump says he is weighing suspension of federal gas tax: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is “thinking about” suspending the federal gasoline tax. Any suspension would require an act of Congress, since the president cannot unilaterally suspend the tax.

  • The national average for regular gas was $4.3685 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA, more than a dollar above a year ago. The federal tax is 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel.

  • Dropping it would cut about 4 percent from the price of a gallon of regular and cost the highway and public transit fund more than $23 billion a year.

• Cook shifts three Senate races toward Democrats: Cook Political Report moved three Senate races leftward Tuesday: Kansas from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up,” New Hampshire from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democrat,” and North Carolina from “Lean Democrat” to “Likely Democrat.”

  • The change raises Democrats’ possible pickups from two to six seats; they need a net gain of four for a majority in the chamber.

• Paramount closes Warner Bros. Discovery deal: Paramount closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, giving David Ellison control of a combined company now called Skydance that owns Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, CNN and CBS News, and HBO Max and Paramount+.

  • Following the merger, the ratings agency Fitch downgraded the combined company, which owes a total of $82 billion to its creditors, citing higher debt and “significant execution and integration risks.”

  • Ellison made nine offers to win the company over rival bidder Netflix and drew criticism for courting President Trump during the Justice Department review, including by hosting an April dinner “honoring the Trump White House.”

  • A coalition of state attorneys general sued to block the deal on antitrust grounds but settled for concessions, including an editorial independence board for CNN and an extra $1.5 billion for movies over five years.

• Whistleblower says Trump demanded FBI probe of anti-ICE protesters over a TikTok video: Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, alleges in a whistleblower complaint to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the bureau opened preliminary investigations into anti-ICE protesters in Southern California in early 2025 after demands from President Trump and other officials, in violation of law and FBI policy.

  • In one case, after a February 2025 protest in Alhambra, her squad was ordered to run pre-assessment checks on two to four protesters seen in a TikTok video using bullhorns to warn neighbors about immigration agents, though FBI policy bars investigations based solely on First Amendment activity and there was no evidence of a crime. Her lawyers’ letter says FBI Director Kash Patel told senior leaders Trump “was angry about the incident, and he wanted those protesters investigated and arrested.”

  • The complaint describes a second incident weeks earlier in which then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove demanded an investigation of protesters outside a federal building in California. When Fields raised concerns, a superior told her it had to happen. She says she was later stripped of her team, lost leadership support, and resigned.

• Sen. Chris Murphy denied entry to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters Tuesday he was barred from entering Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. Air Force installation in the Middle East, during a congressional trip to the region, and that the Pentagon also refused to arrange a briefing on the Iran war. Murphy said that he wanted to see “the damage [the war has] caused to our facilities in the region and how it’s harmed our relationships with partners,” adding that his refusal was a part of “an active, unprecedented, unconstitutional effort underway to hide the costs” of the Iran war from Congress.

  • A senior Defense Department official told The Washington Sun that Murphy’s office was informed before the trip that he would not get access, citing War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s March directive on travel restrictions in the area, which the official said the department “applies… evenly.”

• Christa Pike conscious and speaking after surviving botched Tennessee execution, lawyers say: Christa Pike, 50, who survived two doses of pentobarbital during the Sept. 30 execution attempt, is conscious and speaking, her lawyers said Tuesday. She remains in critical care at a Nashville hospital, they added, noting that they expect a long recovery for Pike.

  • Her lawyers, who have pressed the courts to investigate the injection, said she sustained burns and other injuries to her arm and remains handcuffed and shackled to her bed. On Tuesday, they also renewed their plea for Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the front-runner in next month’s governor’s race, has suggested using the electric chair on Pike following her failed execution.

• Archdiocese of St. Louis sues ICE, Missouri county officials over blocked sacraments for detainees: The Archdiocese of St. Louis filed a federal lawsuit Monday against Ste. Genevieve County officials and ICE leadership, alleging First Amendment violations over restrictions that keep Catholic priests from delivering communion, hearing confessions, and celebrating Mass for immigrant detainees at the Ste. Genevieve County Jail.

  • The suit says priests need private, face-to-face contact for those sacraments, but jail policy allows only visits through glass barriers using a phone system. Visits are limited to a single four-hour window on Sundays, in 30-minute first-come, first-served blocks.

  • Following the diocese’s requests for face-to-face visits, the jail’s administrator allegedly told the diocese that “the visitation policy was implemented by ICE” and that he could not change it.

• 18-year Interior Department lawyer resigns, citing “assault on the rule of law”: John Murdock, an attorney and self-described conservative Christian who joined Interior’s legal office in 2002, stepped down Sept. 30, according to a resignation letter obtained by The Guardian.

  • The letter cites “glaring legal flaws” and flouting of environmental rules under the Trump administration.

  • Murdock cited an appearance by Matt Giacona, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, at a December conference, where he claimed the administration was “upholding the highest environmental standards” in relation to a sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf called BBG1. That sale has been under intense legal scrutiny, with environmental groups claiming that the administration bypassed several environmental laws to see it through.

  • In his letter, Murdock, who worked on the Deepwater Horizon cleanup effort, also noted his disagreement with the administration’s exemptions for Gulf oil and gas operations from the Endangered Species Act, with its recent shuttering of offshore wind projects, and with the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to TotalEnergies to renounce its wind leases.

• Six progressive House members take on Israeli campaign against Palestinian health workers: Reps. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (Ill.), Summer Lee (Penn.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), and Delia Ramirez (Ill.) issued a statement Tuesday condemning Israel’s attacks on Palestinian health workers.

  • The letter notes that Israeli forces have killed “at least 1,700 Palestinian doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare workers,” destroyed dozens of hospitals, and arbitrarily detained hundreds of health workers, including at least 16 physicians still held in “inhumane conditions.” The statement called this an “intentional policy designed to further occupation, apartheid, and genocide against the Palestinian people.”

Other International News

• Kenya confirms first Ebola case after death of traveler from DR Congo: Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case on Tuesday, after a Kenyan national who had lived in the DRC for seven years died in Nairobi, according to Kenyan Health Secretary Aden Duale.

  • The patient had been ill for about a month before traveling by road from the DRC to Kampala, Uganda, and flying to Nairobi on Saturday. Kenyan President William Ruto said at least eight family members and 21 healthcare workers have been quarantined and ordered an enhanced response. Duale also noted that his ministry had identified 28 contacts with the patient, and that it was tracing 23 passengers and four crew from the patient’s Uganda flight.

  • The DRC outbreak, its 17th, was declared May 15 and has killed more than 4,000 people, with confirmed cases reaching 8,300 across seven provinces. The WHO has warned the epidemic is “far from over” and on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people.

• Sudan’s Burhan vows to seize “every inch” of RSF territory, rejecting negotiations: Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said Tuesday at a gathering in Village 5, in the northern locality of Merowe, that the “military option” will continue until the Rapid Support Forces are removed from Sudan, according to the Sudan News Agency.

• RSF attack kills 10 in West Kordofan: An RSF attack killed 10 civilians in Abu Ajal village, in the southeastern countryside of En Nahud in West Kordofan, according to the Dar Hamar Emergency Committee.

  • RSF forces have reportedly been massing in the state following advances by the Sudanese army toward En Nahud and Al Khuway and its recent gains in North Kordofan.

• Ukraine launches 650-drone attack toward Moscow, killing two and igniting warehouse fire, Russian officials say: Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces launched an overnight assault involving 650 drones heading toward the city, most of which he claimed were shot down. Two people were killed in nearby Radumlya and Barbybino, and seven were injured, according to a regional governor, who said the attacks also damaged 47 houses, four apartments and three cars.

  • Russian war blogger Yuri Podolyaka said an oil storage tank was hit at the Volodarskaya facility, the biggest fuel depot in the Moscow region, which stores diesel, petrol and jet fuel and supplies all three of the capital’s large airports; there was no official confirmation.

• Mali’s army retakes Kidal five months after separatists seized it: Mali’s armed forces entered the northern city of Kidal on Tuesday, and the transitional government said troops had “consolidated their positions” after “intense air-ground neutralization operations” supported by “their Russian partners,” according to a statement aired on state television.

  • The Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) said it carried out a “strategic and controlled withdrawal” from the city to “preserve human lives,” noting in its statement the “disproportionate use of aerial assets by Russian mercenaries from Africa Corps.” It called its exit “temporary,” and said the army entered Kidal without a fight.

• Another 105 Nigerians repatriated from South Africa, bringing total to 1,926 since June: A spokesperson for Nigeria’s foreign ministry announced on Tuesday that another 105 Nigerians arrived in Lagos from South Africa on Friday, bringing the number of Nigerians repatriated from South Africa since June to 1,926. The latest group included 26 men, 29 women, and 50 children and was the 14th consular evacuation flight since the program began on June 10, following a wave of attacks on immigrants in South Africa.

• Indian police briefly detain opposition lawmakers, including Rahul Gandhi, at march demanding election chief’s resignation: Police in New Delhi briefly arrested several opposition legislators on Tuesday, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, for trying to breach barricades during a march to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, AFP reported. Gandhi was released shortly after being arrested.

  • The roughly 1 km march ran from parliament to the Election Commission headquarters. Protesters, urged to action by the Gen-Z-led “Cockroach Janta Party,” accuse the commission of manipulating voter registrations to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP.

• Bulgaria’s Radev says drones hit two commercial ships in Black Sea, sinking one: Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said sea and aerial drones struck two commercial vessels at about 3 a.m. Tuesday, roughly 70 nautical miles off Bulgaria’s coast, calling it an “unacceptable attack in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone” and “a blatant violation of international law and maritime law.” He did not identify the source of the drone attacks.

  • The Togo-flagged Alfa Watan suffered critical structural damage and sank, and Bulgarian authorities launched a major search for its missing crew, the Prime Minister said. The Palau-flagged Able, reportedly carrying wheat, also caught fire, with a Bulgarian ferry and naval boat evacuating all 18 crew.

• France suspends high school classes for the rest of the week as student protests spread: Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu suspended high school classes nationwide through the end of the week after protests demanding education reforms on Tuesday drew anywhere from a quarter to a half a million people.

  • Lecornu framed this week’s suspension as a way to let schools pursue “internal democracy” and ordered ministers to address the students’ demands, which include replacing absent teachers and changing the school day, by the end of October.

  • Unions for farmers, energy workers and teachers have joined the demonstrations. Police fired tear gas in several cities, and protests turned violent at times in Strasbourg, Lyon and Rennes, with protesters lighting fires and throwing projectiles.

  • France’s interior ministry says 6,100 people have been arrested, mostly under 18, and the justice ministry says more than 1,800 will be prosecuted, including 1,483 minors.

• Puigdemont to return to Spain after court ruling: Following a ruling from Spain’s Constitutional Court that an amnesty law for Catalan separatists covers the embezzlement charges against self-exiled Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, a Supreme Court judge lifted an arrest warrant against him on Tuesday, clearing the way for his return without fear of arrest.

  • Puigdemont fled to Belgium in 2017 after the Catalan independence referendum, which Madrid called illegal, and has since avoided several extradition attempts.

• Australia’s High Court blocks Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion over emissions: Three of five judges in Australia’s High Court ruled Wednesday that the expansion of the Mount Pleasant mine in New South Wales’s Hunter Valley must be halted, noting that planning authorities had failed to find that greenhouse gas emissions from the facility were “minimised to the greatest extent practicable.”

  • Retired science teachers Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan, who had fought for years against the facility’s expansion, brought the case before the court. Operator Mach Energy, owned by a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Salim Group, had sought to extend the open-cut mine’s life by more than 20 years, to 2048, and nearly double its annual output.

  • Australian environmental activists called it the court’s first ruling on climate change and said it sets a “binding national precedent” requiring climate damage to be weighed when fossil fuel projects are considered.

• U.S. troops in Okinawa get month-long curfew, alcohol ban after Marine accused of murdering local woman: U.S. soldiers stationed in Okinawa have been given a month-long curfew and are banned from drinking alcohol while they undergo discipline training, according to a statement issued to service members on Tuesday, which also announced that U.S. military would pause its operations on the island for 48 hours to train soldiers on “standards and discipline.”

  • The ban follows the Tuesday arrest of Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, was accused of murdering and robbing 39-year-old Anna Yagi in a Naha hotel on Saturday. Japanese Police told Stars and Stripes that Yagi died of asphyxiation after Ballard allegedly “pressed on her neck,” and that he took her wallet and backpack. Ballard denies the allegations.

• Pacific climate ministers say world is “hurtling past” 1.5°C limit at pre-COP31 talks in Fiji: On Tuesday, about 30 nations meeting in Fiji after a visit to Tuvalu adopted the Taku Pakasoa declaration calling for “deep, rapid and sustained emissions reductions.”

  • Fijian climate minister Lynda Tabuya told representatives from more than 30 countries at a separate conference in Nadi on Wednesday that “we are hurtling past the 1.5-degree temperature limit,” adding that “overshoot is not a verdict we accept quietly” and that keeping 1.5 alive is “the primary legal obligation and duty we are here to uphold.”

  • Pacific nations are trying to lock in priorities ahead of COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, in November, including better access to climate finance, ocean protection and honoring the 1.5°C goal, despite UN projections that it will soon be exceeded. UN Environment Programme regional director Dechen Tsering said exceeding 1.5°C is now unavoidable and that each additional 100 years above it would commit the world to about 40 cm of extra median sea level rise by 2300.

📖 READ Why Bagram Air Base Remains a Target Five Years After U.S. Exited Afghanistan

🛒 SHOP for your Drop News/Not Bombs Hoodie

💬 JOIN our Whatsapp Broadcast Channel for the latest reporting, podcasts, and breaking news, delivered directly

⚠️ TOO MANY EMAILS? You can go to your account settings to unsubscribe from the Drop Site Daily newsletter—while still getting the rest of our reporting