October 23, 2026

MIDDLE EAST WAR | Day 238.

• Reports cite unnamed sources as saying the U.S. and Israel are preparing for a possible attack on Iran in early November, after the U.S. midterm elections, though also suggesting that the preparations could be part of a campaign to pressure Iran into a deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said yesterday that Iran is "just as prepared for diplomacy as we are for war." [more]
• Foreign ministers from Europe and the Middle East are meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, today for talks on the security of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Ahead of the meeting, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Germany "will not accept Iran and the Houthi militias holding global trade hostage." [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,700 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Speaking on Russian television yesterday, a day after meeting U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, Russian President Vladimir Putin said future U.S.-mediated peace talks with Ukraine should focus on security guarantees for both countries and on "the architecture of European security as a whole." Putin also said any talks regarding territory in eastern Ukraine must take into account what he called "historically Russian land." [more]
• A drone strike that Romanian President Nicusor Dan blamed on Russia sank a cargo ship off Romania's Black Sea coast today, killing at least one sailor and leaving three others missing. The attack is the latest in a surge of strikes on commercial ships near the Sulina Canal, Ukraine's main export route via the Danube River, with at least seven vessels hit in the past two weeks. [more]

U.S. ELECTIONS | With less than two weeks to go before the November 3 midterm elections, data compiled by CNN, The Associated Press, and the data firm Catalist show that more than 20 million people across the U.S. have already cast ballots – about 18% of total turnout in the 2022 midterms. [more]

U.S. MORTGAGES | According to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, the average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in the U.S. fell this week to 7.32% – down from 7.40% last week in the first weekly decline since late August, but still higher than the 6.19% average at this point last year. [Freddie Mac press release] [more]

TRUMP DEFAMATION LAWSUIT | Miami-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett yesterday ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition by December 11 in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, or face sanctions that could include dismissal of the lawsuit. Lawyers for the BBC say Trump canceled an earlier deposition, set for October 16, to campaign in Georgia. [more]

U.S. ENERGY | Amidst high fuel prices linked to the Middle East war, President Donald Trump yesterday declared petroleum production and refining essential to national defense and invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act, a move that could open up federal funding for oil projects. [more]

U.S. CYBERSECURITY | Medical laboratory operator Quest Diagnostics said in a regulatory filing yesterday that hackers gained unauthorized access to one of its systems this week and likely accessed "certain patient records." The company says the full scope of the breach remains under investigation, and that it was not related to the recently disclosed PHP security flaws. [more]

OHIO | Authorities in Toledo, Ohio, yesterday reduced the evacuation zone around a ruptured tank holding a potentially toxic industrial chemical from a half-mile radius to a quarter-mile radius, allowing residents and businesses outside the smaller area to return. [more]

VIRGINIA | Federal prosecutors yesterday charged Democratic Virginia state Senator Louise Lucas with leading what they allege was a criminal enterprise that distributed large quantities of marijuana and laundered the proceeds. [more]

MINNESOTA | Minnesota officials say in recent court filings that the federal government has stopped sharing evidence with state investigators looking into the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers during the immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis earlier this year. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says federal prosecutors told her in September that evidence sharing would be paused indefinitely "in light of challenges with D.C." [more]

EUROPEAN CLIMATE | According to a new study in the journal Nature Health, this summer's record heat waves contributed to more than 50,000 deaths in European cities, nearly two-thirds of which the researchers attribute to human-caused climate change. The toll is about 71% higher than that of the previous deadliest summer, in 2022, according to the same research team. [more]

CHINA | Chinese authorities say at least 16 people were killed, and 76 others were injured, yesterday when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck a sparsely populated, high-altitude area of China's Tibet region. State media report that the quake collapsed hundreds of homes and that more than 12,000 people have been displaced. [more]

TYPHOON CHAMPI | Schools, offices, and financial markets were closed today in Taiwan as Typhoon Champi passed close to the island's northeastern coast, leaving one person dead and more than 160 injured, and forcing the cancellation of more than 900 flights. Forecasters say the heaviest rain is expected tomorrow, with up to 35 inches forecast in some areas, before the storm moves north toward Japan. [more]

ISRAEL AND WEST BANK | Following a shooting attack near the West Bank city of Hebron that wounded at least five people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today ordered security forces to cordon off the city and prepare for a full closure of the occupied West Bank. Israeli soldiers shot and killed the two alleged gunmen, and Netanyahu has blamed the Hamas militant group for the attack. [more]

FRANCE | After last weekend's riots and looting on the fringes of nationwide cost-of-living protests, French authorities have banned all demonstrations in Marseille and Lyon this weekend and extended a partial overnight curfew in parts of Paris through Monday. President Emmanuel Macron says only union-organized demonstrations will be allowed elsewhere tomorrow, when another national day of protests is planned. [more]

MORE FRANCE | French authorities say one person was killed, and four others were seriously wounded, in a drive-by shooting today at several locations in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, west of Paris, and that a suspect has been arrested. France's national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the shooting, including whether it was racially motivated. [more]

EL SALVADOR AND HAITI | The Associated Press cites two officials as saying El Salvador deployed 100 special forces soldiers to Haiti yesterday to help find four Salvadoran aviation technicians with the international gang suppression force who were abducted by gangs on Sunday. [more]

VENEZUELA | Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in Caracas and other cities yesterday in the first nationwide opposition protest in nearly two years, demanding free elections to choose a successor to former President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by U.S. forces in January. Opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose Vente Venezuela movement organized the protests, has said elections must take place by July 2027, but no date has been set. [more]

KOREA | Amidst rising border tensions following landmine blasts that injured three South Korean soldiers last month, South Korea today proposed military talks with North Korea to confirm the exact location of the border between the two countries and to prevent accidental clashes. North Korea ignored a similar proposal made last November. [more]

TAIWAN AND CHINA | Reuters cites Taiwan's coast guard as saying China is combining maritime militia vessels with coast guard ships to expand "battlefield preparation" around Taiwan and into the western Pacific, adding to pressure on Japan and the Philippines. Officials in Taiwan say they believe China is practicing for a possible maritime blockade. [more]

PHILIPPINES | Philippine authorities today announced a bounty of 50 million pesos (about $787,000) for the capture of Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity linked to former President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug crackdown. [more]

MEDICAL RESEARCH | Drugmakers Moderna and Merck released full results yesterday from a major late-stage trial showing that their experimental personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran, given with standard immunotherapy after surgery, cut the risk of melanoma returning, or of death, by 42% over two years. [more]

BASEBALL | The Milwaukee Brewers host the Tampa Bay Rays tonight in Game 1 of the World Series, the first since 1980 between two teams seeking their first championship. [more]

MUSIC AWARDS | British singer Raye won the 2026 Mercury Prize yesterday for her second album, "This Music May Contain Hope," the first pop album to win the prize for the best British or Irish album of the year since 1994. [more]

R.I.P. | Actor Tom Skerritt, best known for his roles in "Top Gun" and "Alien" and his Emmy-winning role in the TV series "Picket Fences," died Wednesday at the age of 93. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1983, suicide bombers drove truckloads of high explosives into the barracks of U.S. Marines and French paratroopers in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 U.S. service members and 58 French troops serving with the Multinational Force in Lebanon. [more history]