Viral footage from Pont Gallia shows student protesters confronting police in Strasbourg as France’s education protest movement expands nationwide amid anger over school conditions, staffing shortages and public spending.
France has successfully launched its upgraded M51.3 strategic ballistic missile from the nuclear-powered submarine Le Vigilant, with President Emmanuel Macron using the test to reinforce France’s commitment to maintaining and modernizing its independent nuclear deterrent.
The Westpac Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell from 84.4 to 80.4 in a survey taken from 28 September to 1 October. Respondents before the 29 September rate decision scored 86.9. Those after it scored 67.2, a near 20 percent gap and the largest daily split since Westpac began tracking in 2019. The cash rate is 4.6 percent, the highest since 2011. Westpac expects another rise on 2 to 3 November.
The Guardian found seven tankers made 14 voyages from South Korean ports to the Russian far east in July and August, carrying more than 176,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel. The sanctioned Layla carried 57,000 tonnes from Ulsan to Vladivostok. Astoria and Chongchon also declared other destinations and sailed to Vladivostok. CREA says South Korea supplied 31 percent of Russia’s August seaborne oil product imports. Seoul’s foreign ministry did not discuss the tankers.
A binding motion at the Green Party of England and Wales conference in Brighton on Sunday says Zionism should be treated as any other form of racism and backs a single democratic Palestinian state in historic Palestine. Zack Polanski did not vote. Four of the party’s five MPs opposed the text. The European Green party, which includes the English and Welsh party among 47 members, said it will demand clarity. Felix Banaszak of the German Greens called the motion intolerable. Israel barred Polanski from entry.
Wanying Zhang, an Irvine real estate agent also known as Heather, was arrested on 4 October as she prepared to fly to Shanghai. A criminal complaint says she and another person went to the Seattle area home of Lai Ting-yu, son of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, in September 2025, filmed the family and sent licence plate numbers on WeChat. Taiwan called it transnational repression. Zhang confirmed her name in court and offered no plea. The charge is unproven.
Marco Rubio landed in Iceland on 5 October at the start of a three country NATO trip. The State Department said he will discuss economic and security cooperation in Reykjavík, lead the sixth US Greece Strategic Dialogue in Athens, and meet Portuguese officials in Lisbon on defence, economy and technology. Iceland has no standing army. The visit is the first by a US secretary of state since Antony Blinken in 2021, and it follows a 22 September security pact on Greenland.
The Nasdaq set a fresh record on Monday as megacap technology shares rose. A morning Reuters snapshot had the composite up 0.62 percent at 27,360.28, with Nvidia up 1.1 percent and Meta, Microsoft and Tesla each up more than 1 percent. Later reports put the index near 27,409. PTC surged after Schneider Electric’s $22.6 billion offer. The 10-year Treasury yield stayed above 5 percent. The Dow was flat to lower in early trade.
At the Energy Intelligence Forum in London on 5 October, Amin Nasser said the world has lost nearly 3 billion barrels of gross oil supply since the Iran war, with more than 1 billion barrels drawn from stocks. He said commercial inventories are “scarily thin” and that refilling them while meeting demand could take up to two years even after Hormuz reopens. Kuwait Petroleum CEO Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah said crude is ample but refined products are short by about 6 million barrels a day. Reuters reported Brent above $100 a barrel.
Simon Stiell told a Welcome event at pre-COP in Fiji on 5 October that pregnancy and birth are a new Faultline in the climate crisis. A survey of 1,000 maternal health workers in Australia, Brazil, India, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe found 73 percent said heat-linked complications had increased in five years, and 98 percent said they had cared for a pregnant woman they believed was affected by extreme heat. The findings are clinician reports, not a clinical trial.
The Omani co pilot accused of attacking the captain of Flydubai Flight FZ1073 is expected to face the death penalty in the United Arab Emirates, according to a senior Emirati source cited in regional reporting. Hammam al Hammami, 29, is accused of attacking Captain Smit Machchhar with a cockpit crash axe and attempting to seize control of the aircraft while it was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The UAE Attorney General has formally described the incident as an attempted terrorist act. Investigators are also examining al Hammami’s past after reports emerged that he had previously been removed from flying duties in Oman over concerns about extremist views and that digital material linked to him contained extremist content. No formal sentence has been announced and investigators are still examining whether he acted alone or had links to any wider extremist organization.
Millions of Brazilians are voting in a closely contested presidential election dominated by incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Thirteen candidates are competing in the first round, but Lula and Bolsonaro have emerged as the two leading contenders. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of valid votes, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff election on October 25. Voters are also electing all 513 members of Brazil’s lower house and two thirds of the Senate, making Sunday’s vote critical to the country’s future political balance. The campaign has been shaped by concerns over corruption, living costs, crime, public debt and Brazil’s increasingly difficult relationship with the United States.Millions of Brazilians are voting in a closely contested presidential election dominated by incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Thirteen candidates are competing in the first round, but Lula and Bolsonaro have emerged as the two leading contenders. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of valid votes, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff election on October 25. Voters are also electing all 513 members of Brazil’s lower house and two thirds of the Senate, making Sunday’s vote critical to the country’s future political balance. The campaign has been shaped by concerns over corruption, living costs, crime, public debt and Brazil’s increasingly difficult relationship with the United States.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Kyiv on Sunday as air raid sirens and explosions were heard across the Ukrainian capital during another period of intensified Russian attacks. Merz met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a new German support package that includes approximately €1 billion in military assistance and €350 million for repairs to Ukraine’s heavily damaged energy infrastructure. The visit also includes plans to deepen joint German Ukrainian drone production, particularly interceptor drones designed to counter Russian aerial attacks. The trip comes as both Russia and Ukraine signal further escalation, with Moscow saying it will intensify strikes on Ukrainian military and defense related infrastructure while Kyiv says it will increase attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Ghanaian born U.S. Army Captain Stephen O. Adjei has died during a scuba training exercise at Lake Hydra in Pennsylvania. The 31 year old officer was assigned to the United States Military Academy at West Point and had been training with other West Point divers when the incident occurred. Authorities say Adjei was reported missing underwater before being recovered and brought to shore. West Point and the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office say the circumstances surrounding his death remain under investigation, and no official cause has yet been announced.
Iraq’s state owned Oil Tankers Company says it has successfully transported 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude through the Strait of Hormuz aboard a very large crude carrier. The company’s director general described the operation as the first of its kind carried out by the state tanker company in decades. The shipment comes at a sensitive time for Gulf energy exports as security concerns and regional conflict continue to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The operation highlights Iraq’s efforts to strengthen its own crude transportation capacity and maintain access to international oil markets.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeated his pledge to give every adult American citizen $5,000 if Republicans retain control of both the House of Representatives and Senate in the 2026 midterm elections. Trump said he looked forward to signing the checks if Republicans win both chambers of Congress. The proposal, previously described by Trump as a dividend, has not been approved by Congress and no payment program currently exists. Independent estimates suggest the plan could cost more than $1 trillion, meaning congressional approval and a funding mechanism would be required before any payments could be issued.
A 12 year old girl has been killed and three adults injured after gunfire erupted during a youth football event at Leon Day Park in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore Police say investigators believe two adult men became involved in an argument near the park before shots were fired. The girl, who police say was not involved in the dispute, was caught in the crossfire and later died from her injuries. A 25 year old woman and two men aged 23 and 28 were also wounded. Police said all three surviving victims were in stable condition. Authorities are searching for at least two male suspects as homicide detectives continue investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Ukraine says it will intensify attacks on Russian oil refineries in response to what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describes as Moscow’s new doctrine of expanded airstrikes against Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure. Zelenskyy said Kyiv intends to respond by increasing pressure on Russia’s energy sector rather than deliberately targeting civilians. The announcement marks a significant escalation in Ukraine’s long running campaign against Russian refining and energy infrastructure. Russia, meanwhile, says its own strikes on Ukraine are retaliatory and has denied deliberately targeting civilians.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have officially described the violent cockpit incident aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 as an attempted terrorist attack. UAE Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said the co pilot attacked the captain with a cockpit crash axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft during the Dubai to Tel Aviv flight. Passengers and crew members intervened, and a reserve pilot later landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The suspect is in custody in the UAE. Authorities say the investigation is continuing to determine his motive and whether anyone else was connected to the attack.
Iran has executed Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi, a man arrested during nationwide anti government protests in January, according to the country’s judiciary. Iranian authorities said Kheirabadi was convicted of moharebeh, commonly translated as waging war against God, as well as assembly and collusion against national security. The judiciary alleged that he fired at least three shots toward police during demonstrations in Shahrekord on January 8 and was arrested two days later. Reuters said it could not independently verify the allegations against him. The execution comes amid increasing international scrutiny of Iran’s use of capital punishment against people detained during the January unrest.
A crude oil tanker has been struck by an unidentified projectile in waters about four nautical miles east of Oman, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. The vessel’s master reported that the projectile struck the port side of the tanker early Saturday, October 3. All crew members have been reported safe and no environmental impact has been recorded so far. The source and nature of the projectile remain unknown and no country or armed group has been identified as responsible. The incident comes amid heightened insecurity around the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman, where several commercial vessels have recently reported being struck by unidentified projectiles.
Global oil prices fell sharply on Friday, with Brent crude dropping below $100 a barrel as markets reacted to intensifying discussions among European and other major economies about releasing emergency diesel and crude oil reserves. Brent fell about 3% to around $99.25 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate dropped more than 4% to about $88.92. European gasoil futures, a major benchmark for diesel prices, also fell more than 4%. The decline followed a French proposal for European Union countries to release about 50 million barrels of diesel from emergency reserves, while International Energy Agency members are considering a similar 50 million barrel release of crude oil.
The United States added only 29,000 jobs in September, far below economists' expectations, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%, according to fresh Labor Department data. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected employers to add about 90,000 jobs. The report also showed that August's previously reported 162,000 job increase was revised down to 133,000, adding to evidence that the labor market is losing momentum. The weaker figures immediately affected financial markets, with investors sharply reducing expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again at its October meeting.
European Union countries are discussing a French proposal to release about 50 million barrels of diesel from emergency reserves as governments try to cool sharply rising fuel prices and ease pressure on strained global supply. The talks mark a significant escalation from earlier discussions in which Washington pressed France and Germany to begin drawing down their emergency diesel stocks. A separate proposal under consideration would involve International Energy Agency members releasing about 50 million barrels of crude oil. The French proposal comes as Europe faces tighter diesel supplies caused by the war involving Iran, reduced Russian fuel exports, lower Chinese exports and structural weakness in Europe's own refining sector.
