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World

Foreign affairs that are not the shooting: diplomacy, elections, the other shore.

Marco Rubio speaks with both hands raised, the tiled towers of the Registan and Uzbek flags behind him.

Diplomacy

Rubio told Samarkand the war should end.

On Monday, in front of the Registan, the secretary of state said he did not know whether a meeting of Trump, Putin, and Xi had been set. He said he saw nothing good in the war.

The Rocket News · Samarkand · October 19, 2026

Fire and smoke rise at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh after a Houthi strike.

The Gulf

A Houthi strike killed 13 at the Riyadh airport.

More than 300 people were wounded at King Khalid International. A second strike hit the same airport. Saudi Arabia is asking how the missiles got through. The Houthis said Saudi bombs on Sanaa killed 10.

Video · BBC News

Police move on demonstrators in Paris during the protests over conditions in French schools.

France

French students said they will keep blocking the schools.

The education ministry said 141 schools were still shut Friday, after the government promised 3,000 more teachers. Unions called another national strike for Tuesday. The Interior Ministry counted 71,500 marchers on Thursday.

Video · Euronews

A mourner at a memorial on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack.

Israel

Israel marks three years since the Oct. 7 attack.

Mourners stood at Kfar Aza. The 2023 assault killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Gaza’s toll is past 74,000. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire has not stopped the killing or disarmed Hamas.

Brazil

Flávio Bolsonaro finished first. He and Lula meet on Oct. 25.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro led the first round. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was second. Neither had a majority. The Washington Post said the runoff is set.

Brazil

Brazilians vote today, with Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro nearly even.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80, wants a fourth term. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, wants his father’s movement back. A runoff on Oct. 25 is likely.

Concrete barriers stood at R.A.F. Fairford after police arrested a 25-year-old British-Iranian man in London.

Britain

London police arrested a British-Iranian man over Fairford.

The 25-year-old was held on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. British officials say they believe Iran played a part in the incident at the American-used air base.

The Pentagon said U.S. troops and equipment had left the last American air base in northern Iraq.

Baghdad

The last American troops left Iraq.

The Pentagon said Wednesday the withdrawal is finished. Twelve years against the Islamic State. The last air base was in the north. Sean Parnell called the departure orderly.

The U.N.

Iran offered seven days to open Hormuz.

Abbas Araghchi said the strait could open at the end of a week if Washington lifts the blockade, waives oil sanctions, and accepts a ceasefire that includes Lebanon.

Masoud Pezeshkian told the General Assembly that Iran must be powerful enough not to be threatened.

The U.N.

Pezeshkian told the U.N. Iran will not be bullied.

A day after Trump said he would annihilate Iran without a deal, the Iranian president claimed a right to peaceful nuclear work. Witkoff and Kushner had already sat down with Araghchi.

Macron said not one humanitarian corridor in Gaza had been reopened.

Diplomacy

Macron called Gaza a spectacle that should shame everyone.

Not one humanitarian corridor reopened, he said. Trump had called the peace secured.

Guterres, last Assembly: cracks have become canyons. Four tests of power.

The Hall

Guterres: cracks have become canyons. His last Assembly.

War and peace. Wealth. Climate. Artificial intelligence. He named Russia. He did not pick a fight with Trump.

Video · United Nations

The U.N. opens this week under wars, a runaway model, and a $6 diesel.

The Assembly

The U.N. opens under wars, a runaway model, and a $6 diesel.

Guterres this week. Lula Tuesday. Trump after that. Putin is not coming. Xi is.

Colorful houses on the Nuuk shore, fjord and mountains in color. No figures in the frame.

The Arctic

Greenland: permanent security. Denmark keeps the island. The text is not out.

Trump: Infinite Life, no cost. Frederiksen: sovereignty, self-determination, sign at the U.N. next week.

An oil tanker in a narrow dusk strait between arid mountains, a distant column of smoke on the horizon. No figures in the frame.

Hormuz

The East-West is shut. Four percent of the world’s oil. Yanbu is dark.

Houthis hit the pipeline that bypassed Hormuz. Loadings cancelled. Wright: days. Goldman: eight weeks.

Video · Times Now

Diplomacy

Trump posted a truce. Kyiv said if. Moscow said maybe. Nobody signed.

Zelensky: a strong proposal. Reciprocity, or it is a press release. Diesel is still $6.27.

Video · CNN-News18

Hormuz

Salalah postponed. Saudi asked. The maps stay in the drawer.

Oman: conditions not right. Iran: the understanding with Muscat is already done. Brent above $108.

Video · LiveNOW from FOX

Diplomacy

Bahrain will not sit. Iran will show maps. The strait is not open.

Salalah Monday. Araghchi: a new lane, not a reopening. Fees still argued.

Video · Times Now World

President Trump walking the South Lawn toward Marine One: the figure in black and white — coat, tie, fist — grass, trees and the olive helicopter in color. Editor’s plate for the Dublin note, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.

Dublin

Trump would “love” a united Ireland. “It may as well happen now.”

Farmleigh House. Micheál Martin sat next to him. London heard it. Downing Street did not clap.

Video · The White House

A products tanker listing and on fire at a Persian Gulf anchorage at dusk. No figures in the frame.

Diplomacy

Gulf ministers will sit with Iran in Salalah. A table, not a strait.

Monday in Oman. Enter Iranian water, exit Omani. Brent slipped, then held $104.

Video · LiveNOW from FOX

An oil tanker in a narrow dusk strait between arid mountains, a distant column of smoke on the horizon.

Diplomacy

Qatar wants Hormuz opened. Unconditionally. The file went to Beijing.

Doha rejects Iranian transit fees and anyone else’s leverage. Forty-two tankers are still waiting.

Video · BBC News

An empty carrier flight deck at dusk: ranked jets, a wake, no faces.

Europe

AfD wins Saxony-Anhalt and not a majority. Europe still has to count.

Exit polls: the far right first in a German state vote, short of an absolute grip. Berlin will spend the holiday doing arithmetic.

Video · CBS Evening News

An empty diplomatic table after a signing: blotters, fountain pens, water glasses in a marble hall.

Diplomacy

A peace signed in June, already fraying by summer’s end

On June 15 the United States and Iran put names on a page. The page has not proved thicker than the missiles.

Video · Kompas.com