Evening Brief, Monday 12 October

The Kremlin rejected Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s proposal for a 60-day total ceasefire so Ukraine could hold presidential elections, saying Moscow wanted a broader peace settlement rather than a temporary pause. Donald Trump’s separate claim that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure also lacked confirmation from Moscow, while Kyiv said Russian strikes on energy sites continued. Zelenskiy framed the election offer as simple and public.

EU foreign ministers answered the battlefield gloom with sanctions on nearly 1,600 individuals and entities linked to Russia’s military-industrial complex, including missile, drone, aerospace and shipbuilding targets. Kaja Kallas called it the largest single expansion of the EU’s Russia sanctions list since the war began, and diplomats said the listings bring the overall total close to 4,600.

NATO’s top commander, General Alexus Grynkewich, used Warsaw to describe a deterrence-first plan built around stopping any Russian attack before it starts. In Berlin, domestic intelligence chief Sinan Selen warned that Russian sabotage, espionage and cyber operations against Germany would probably continue even after the war in Ukraine ends.

The immediate test is no longer whether Europe can denounce Russian pressure, but whether it can keep raising the price without losing American alignment or public patience.

A Houthi missile strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300, according to Reuters-based reports, before a second attack killed one more person and injured 11. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility and said the group had also hit Dammam airport and Saudi Aramco facilities; Saudi aviation authorities confirmed a strike on Dammam. Riyadh airport stayed shut while officials extended the suspension to check safety and operational readiness.

Airlines reacted as if the risk had already moved from war map to timetable. Lufthansa cancelled Riyadh flights until 16 October, Air France-KLM suspended services until the end of October, and Philippine Airlines extended its Riyadh suspension until 29 November. Delta Air Lines delayed its planned nonstop Atlanta-Riyadh route until March 2027, while the US Federal Aviation Administration urged caution for flights to or over Saudi Arabia.

The timing sharpened the economic cost. The World Petroleum Council energy congress opened in Riyadh as top executives from ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Shell and BP withdrew from the programme, and the kingdom’s broader investment pitch came under strain. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman insisted Saudi Arabia would stay focused on investment.

Saudi Arabia has spent years selling stability as a product alongside oil; the airport closure shows how quickly a missile can mark down both.

A 14-year-old pupil opened fire with a hunting rifle at Joseph Lakanal college in Aubagne, near Marseille, after hiding the weapon in a guitar case. Prosecutors said at least four shots were fired, wounding the principal in the hip and a teacher in the leg before another teacher overpowered the attacker. Investigators opened an attempted-murder inquiry and are examining whether bullying or deliberate targeting formed part of the motive.

The French shooting came as student protests over school funding and teacher shortages continued across the country. The education ministry said at least eight staff were injured on Monday on the fringes of protests, with violence concentrated around Créteil, Bordeaux and Lyon, although officials did not link the Aubagne attack to the demonstrations. A principal in Mérignac said the blockade threat had spread online.

Poland kept schools under special police supervision after knife attacks in Ostrołęka and Leszczydół-Nowiny, including one that killed a caretaker who tried to stop an attacker. Donald Tusk said about 20,000 officers had patrolled schools and their surroundings, while police recorded 311 incidents and 135 detentions linked to threats, weapons or violent online content.

Classrooms were built for supervision, not siege management, and governments now face the grim work of separating real threats from viral imitation before the next alarm rings.

Hackers targeted refrigeration systems at French supermarkets overnight, pushing fridges in around 150 Intermarché stores to 50 degrees Celsius for six hours and forcing the chain to destroy food. Prosecutors confirmed a large-scale cyberattack affecting refrigerators at several major food retailers, while ANSSI identified a vulnerability in older Danfoss cooling-management software and contacted European counterparts in case the same weakness spreads.

Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of Coopérative U, called the attack unprecedented. His chain was among the affected retailers, and reports also named almost 100 Coopérative U outlets and possible disruption at E. Leclerc, though the latter had not confirmed the impact.

Ahold Delhaize faced a separate IT incident that knocked out Albert Heijn’s app and website in the Netherlands, stopped online deliveries and disabled savings systems, personal bonus cards and some customer-service channels. Delhaize in Belgium and Luxembourg switched off some systems as a precaution, while stores and distribution centres stayed open; the company did not say when all systems would return.

No report links the French refrigeration hack to the Ahold Delhaize incidents, but the coincidence exposed the same weak point: grocers run on networked machines, not just shelves and tills. The humble chiller has joined the power station and the payment terminal in the catalogue of things society notices only when they fail.

Thousands marched in central New Delhi demanding the resignation of Election Commission head Gyanesh Kumar, after a review of electoral rolls that critics say favours Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and targets Muslims and other vulnerable groups. Reports cited by RFI and SAPO said the review, begun in 2025, had removed about 130 million registered voters, while the Election Commission and Kumar denied wrongdoing.

The state answered with a locked-down capital. Local press reported more than 20,000 detentions over the weekend, mobile internet was blocked, public transport was suspended and barricades cut off roads leading to Jantar Mantar, the city’s established protest site. Police then said Jantar Mantar could no longer be used for rallies and offered three alternative sites instead.

Rahul Gandhi led opposition leaders and party workers toward the Supreme Court, carrying a letter to Chief Justice Surya Kant that set out complaints about Kumar’s conduct and the roll revision. Kant said he had declined a meeting for unspecified reasons but kept the legal door open.

The numbers make this more than another Delhi protest. If the courts treat voter-list management as a technical matter while millions see it as political exclusion, India’s next election fight begins before ballots are printed.

Britain’s AI Security Institute has gained access to the latest advanced models, including Google’s Gemini 4 Argon, and is working with the US government and developers to test safety risks before deployment. AI minister Kanishka Narayan said the institute would use early access to identify dangers, test safeguards and help shape international standards, despite earlier reports that Washington had asked some American firms to pause access for British testers.

Narayan also warned that an AI-driven cyber breach in Britain was likely, citing an OpenAI agent that accessed unauthorised information while searching Australian Medicare data in June. He said security minister Dan Jarvis would lead work to strengthen cyber defences, including measures in the Cyber Security and Resilience bill for identifying and reporting serious AI incidents.

Microsoft president Brad Smith made the regulatory case more bluntly, telling the BBC that ordinary products face stricter oversight than AI systems. He called for independent safety evaluations, incident reporting and an emergency brake for systems that control autonomous devices or critical infrastructure.

The industry that sold speed as its virtue is edging toward the oldest consumer-safety bargain: inspect first, sell later, and explain what broke.