October 8, 2026

MIDDLE EAST WAR | Day 223.

• Iranian state media cite President Masoud Pezeshkian as saying earlier this week that negotiations with the U.S. to end the Middle East war are futile because the U.S. has attacked Iran three times following talks. Pezeshkian also accused the U.S. of seeking to bring down the Islamic Republic. [more]
• Amidst reports of increased attacks on tankers in and around the Strait of Hormuz over the past weeks, the price of international benchmark Brent crude oil rose more than 4% in early trading today, surpassing $104 per barrel. [more on tanker attacks] [more on oil prices]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,685 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Regional officials say at least 30 people were killed, and 18 others were injured, today in a Russian attack on the eastern Ukraine city of Kramatorsk that struck a street where city buses were operating. Authorities have since halted public transport in Kramatorsk and neighboring Sloviansk. [more]
• Ukrainian officials say the death toll from yesterday's large-scale Russian missile and drone attacks has risen to at least 32, including 22 people killed when a missile struck an apartment building in the northern city of Pryluky. [more]

HURRICANE ISAIAS | In its latest advisory, the National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, is expected to strengthen further before making landfall on the northern Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday. The governors of Florida and Alabama have declared states of emergency ahead of the storm's arrival, and mandatory evacuations have been ordered in some coastal areas of Florida. [official update] [more]

U.S. POLITICS | Amidst bipartisan criticism of the White House's federally funded campaign-style television ads promoting President Donald Trump, the Democratic National Committee and a coalition including the watchdog group Common Cause filed separate lawsuits yesterday asking federal judges to halt the use of federal funds for the ads. Reports note that ads indicating they were paid for with federal funds were broadcast after Trump said his political action committee would pay for future airings. [more]

U.S. ELECTIONS | Ahead of next month's midterm elections, the Federal Communications Commission is considering a petition by the conservative group Club for Growth to allow political groups to make unsolicited robocalls to cellphones using prerecorded or AI-generated voices. The FCC is accepting reply comments on the request through October 19 and could rule on it as soon as late October. [FCC notice] [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | Citing two sources familiar with the directive, CNN reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership told agents nationwide on Tuesday to increase immigration arrests by 1,000 a day, returning to a previous goal of 3,000 daily arrests. The Department of Homeland Security denies that there are any such arrest quotas. [more]

U.S. HIGHER EDUCATION | The Department of Homeland Security, citing abuses of visa programs, yesterday proposed requiring colleges and universities to pay a $70,000 fee for each international student entering the Optional Practical Training program, which lets students work in the U.S. in their field during or after their studies. [more]

U.S. INTEREST RATES | According to minutes released yesterday from its September meeting, most Federal Reserve officials expect that another interest rate increase will likely be needed this year to combat inflation. The Fed raised its key rate by a quarter percentage point to about 3.9% at that meeting – its first increase in three years. [full minutes] [more]

U.S. PRESIDENCY | President Donald Trump said yesterday that he wants to turn his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, into a presidential retreat for his successors, "sort of a Camp David," under a plan already submitted to local officials. The Trump Organization owns the club but leases the land from Palm Beach County, which would need to approve the plan. [more]

U.S. AND MYANMAR | Citing unnamed sources, Reuters reports that the Trump administration has opened direct talks with Myanmar's military-installed government, reversing years of U.S. efforts to isolate the country's generals after the Southeast Asian nation's 2021 coup. The talks are reported to have focused on shutting down scam centers that target Americans but could expand to other issues, including Myanmar's rare-earth mineral deposits. [more]

U.S. AND VENEZUELA | Reports say federal prosecutors are expected to bring new charges this week against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, over their alleged role in the torture of Americans held in Venezuelan prisons. [more]

GLOBAL ENERGY | The International Energy Agency said yesterday it intends to speed up the release of emergency oil stocks under a plan announced in March and to prioritize diesel stocks, as governments struggle with record fuel prices and supply disruptions caused by the Iran war. The move comes as industry executives warn that oil stockpiles readily available to the global market are running low. [more]

YEMEN AND SAUDI ARABIA | Saudi authorities say three people were killed and 36 injured in Houthi attacks on airports in Riyadh and Abha on Tuesday and Wednesday. Amidst the escalating conflict, Reuters cites a U.S. official and a Syrian defense official as saying Syria is considering sending military assistance, possibly including troops, to help Saudi Arabia fight the Houthis. [more on the airport attacks] [more on Syria]

RUSSIA | The World Health Organization said yesterday that it still does not know what caused the recent death of a worker at a Siberian plague research institute and asked Russia to respond to media reports of a second worker with pneumonia of undetermined cause. The Kremlin has dismissed most media reporting on the situation as "false information." [more]

SPAIN | Amidst ongoing protests over housing costs, Spain's two largest labor unions have called a nationwide general strike for November 11, just weeks before the country's November 29 snap election. [more]

POLAND | Police say a 15-year-old former pupil killed a caretaker and injured two others in an attack at a primary school northeast of Warsaw, Poland, today – a day after a knife attack at another school in the country injured 10 people. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called an emergency meeting to address the violence. [more]

NIGERIA | Military officials say Islamic State-affiliated militants killed several soldiers in an attack on a military base in Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno on Tuesday. The Associated Press cites a senior military officer as saying 10 soldiers were killed. [more]

TECH INDUSTRY | Driven by high demand for artificial intelligence memory chips, Samsung Electronics today forecast a record operating profit of about $80 billion for the third quarter – a level reports say is the highest-ever quarterly profit for a technology company. [more]

NOBEL PRIZES | Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature today for what the Swedish Academy characterized as her "bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature." [full announcement] [more]

LITERARY AWARDS | Tayari Jones' novel "Kin," which follows two lifelong friends growing up in Louisiana, won the Kirkus Prize for fiction yesterday. Pamela Colloff's "Catch the Devil," an investigation of a 1987 murder conviction on the Gulf Coast, won the award for nonfiction. [full list of winners] [more]

R.I.P. | Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, who led the team that wrote the on-board software for NASA's Apollo missions in the 1960s, died last week at the age of 90. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 2005, the Kashmir earthquake, one of the most destructive of modern times, struck Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, killing as many as 88,000 people. [more history]