Evening Brief, Saturday 17 October

Russia launched one of its largest recent strikes on Ukraine's energy system, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. He said more than 15 important generation and transmission sites were hit between 19:00 on Friday and 07:00 on Saturday in cities including Lutsk, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Slavutych and Netishyn, and in the Kharkiv, Kyiv and Dnipro regions. Ukraine shot down a significant share of the missiles and drones, he said, but the volume and steady pace of the attack damaged the grid and forced repair crews to mobilise all available resources.

Zelensky said Moscow was trying to push Ukraine into blackouts before winter, which would leave households without power and heating. He urged foreign governments to increase pressure on Russia and said European partners had prepared new support packages, though he gave no details. He also pointed to the Graham act, a US sanctions law signed in September, as a tool that could help if Washington enforced it.

Donald Trump announced on Friday that he was suspending parts of the Graham act, citing the US national interest. Zelensky called the move a sanctions blackout that rewards Vladimir Putin financially. In Moscow, presidential adviser Kirill Dmitriev welcomed the decision and said the law could have damaged both the American economy and world markets.

France's national day of protest over living costs, fuel prices and public services drew students, unions, activists and gilets jaunes supporters into the streets on Saturday. The interior ministry said most people demonstrated peacefully, but it also reported vandalism and several hundred far-left militants looking for confrontation with police and rescue workers. By the afternoon, the ministry had confirmed more than 270 detentions across France.

Paris carried the sharpest images. The authorised march ran from Place de la République to Place de Clichy, where the first marchers arrived calmly. At Place de la République, officers used water cannon and tear gas to push back hostile groups, while firefighters put out vehicle fires. Reports put detentions in the capital at 61 by 11:00 and 163 by mid-afternoon. Police sources had expected 30,000 to 60,000 demonstrators in Paris and 90,000 to 170,000 across the country.

The unrest also reached media and commercial targets. Hooded people blocked access to the CNews building in western Paris around 07:00, and later reports said about 100 people took part and objects damaged windows. In Marseille, a municipal police post and shops were attacked, windows were smashed and smoke bombs were thrown inside. In Lyon, local reports said protesters set fire to the tourism office, while the prefecture dispersed smaller groups near the Rhône and the Feyzin refinery.

Emmanuel Macron had appealed from Brussels for calm and said the right to protest had to go with respect. The protest website listed more than 1,750 planned actions, including roundabouts, toll booths, ports, refineries and oil depots, but blockades recorded by Saturday afternoon fell short of the previous day's warnings.

Pope Leo XIV left Rome's Gemelli hospital on Saturday and returned to the Vatican, five days after his admission and four days after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung. The Holy See said doctors cleared him for discharge after blood tests, a chest X-ray and a review of his clinical condition. The operation on Tuesday lasted 90 minutes and removed an adenocarcinoma, a form of lung cancer.

The Vatican described a steady recovery. Pope Leo XIV ate on the first day after surgery, handled urgent business from hospital on Wednesday, and concelebrated mass on Thursday and Friday. The first photographs released after the procedure showed him standing at mass in a hospital chapel. The bulletin said he had started breathing physiotherapy and could carry out normal daily activities independently.

Doctors have not said whether the pope is cancer-free. Biopsy results are still awaited, and the Vatican has not reported the tumour's size, whether other nodules were found or whether lymph nodes were affected. Those details will shape whether he needs only follow-up care or further treatment. Jürgen Behr, a pulmonologist at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, estimated that losing one lung lobe cuts lung performance by about 10% to 20%, often barely noticeable in daily life.

His trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru remains scheduled for 6 to 17 November. Bishops in the three countries said they looked forward to the visit but asked that his health come first, and the Angelus on Sunday from the papal apartment window is set to be his first official encounter with the faithful since the operation.

A 16-year-old former pupil opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, killing three children aged 5, 8 and 11 and a 25-year-old female teacher. Annual class photos were being taken, so almost all pupils were at the school. Police entered the building minutes after the first emergency call and found the attacker already dead.

Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter and father of two pupils at the school, heard the shots while driving home from lunch. His brother told NBC News that Giamanco saw the attacker enter the building, drove onto the pavement and ran inside. He found the attacker wrestling with a teacher for the shotgun, then fired several times with a legally kept.40-calibre pistol from his car. Police chief Mike Krantz said the teacher had thrown her phone at the attacker and fought for the weapon, actions he called heroic.

Two more people were taken to hospital, a seven-year-old girl and a 54-year-old female teacher. Reports differed on the severity of their injuries, but De Standaard said both were expected to recover and that one was flown by helicopter to a children's hospital in Portland. All Bend schools stayed closed, and Silver Rail is due to remain shut until early in the week of 19 October.

Investigators are trying to establish how the attacker obtained the shotgun and ammunition. NBC News reported that his mother bought the shotgun, while De Standaard said the weapon belonged to her and that he carried 44 extra cartridges. Officials have not disclosed a motive. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden called for gun laws, while Governor Tina Kotek praised the rescuer and Donald Trump called the father a hero.

Iranian media, citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said a supertanker struck a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz in the early hours of Saturday, setting off an explosion and a fire. The Guards said the vessel was carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil and had tried to cross the strait by an unauthorised route with positioning and radar systems switched off. They also claimed the ship moved with US military support.

The first reports could not independently verify the Iranian account. The extent of the fire remained unclear, and no source gave the crew's condition or location. US Central Command and UKMTO, Britain's maritime-security authority, had made no statement in the overnight reporting, so the public account rested on the Guards and Iranian state media.

The strait is only 35 to 40 kilometres wide at its narrowest point and carries large volumes of oil and liquefied natural gas. Iran has largely blocked traffic through it since the war with the United States and Israel began after attacks on 28 February 2026, using threats and strikes on shipping, while the United States blockades Iranian ports and coastal areas to cut Iran's oil revenue. Iran is accused of having partly mined the waterway.

The reported incident followed a failed ceasefire track. Washington and Tehran agreed a ceasefire on 6 April, talks later produced a contested 14-point declaration on 17 June, and Trump declared the ceasefire over during the NATO summit on 7 July. Since then the United States has carried out daily attacks on Iran, and Iran has responded with missile strikes on neighbours.

Masked Israeli settlers attacked a European diplomatic convoy in Taybeh, east of Ramallah, on Saturday during the olive harvest period. Reports said the convoy included diplomats from France, Belgium and Poland. The rear window of a Belgian consulate vehicle was smashed, one vehicle was stoned, and AFP reported that Bernard Baudoux, the communist mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France, was struck and later seen slumped by a car. A diplomat told AFP his life was not in danger.

The Israel Defense Forces condemned the attack and said the visit had not been coordinated with the army, which it called essential for preventing incidents. A preliminary review found that no soldiers were present when the attack occurred. Israeli police opened an investigation after receiving footage and said they would locate the victims, take statements and identify suspects.

The attack followed a separate assault on Friday in Abu Falah, also near Ramallah, where witnesses told Reuters that masked settlers came down from a hill, set olive trees alight and threw stones at villagers, activists and journalists. Heidi Levine, a Washington Post photographer, said she was knocked to the ground and kicked for about ten minutes. The Post said she suffered four fractured vertebrae, a broken rib and lacerations, and the Foreign Press Association said attackers stole her passport, phone, wallet and equipment.

Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the facts around Abu Falah remained unclear and under investigation, and it condemned violence against anyone. Matt Murray, the Post's executive editor, rejected that framing, saying Levine was marked as press and beaten. The Israeli military said soldiers and Border Police fired warning shots after arriving, while activists and a Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic said a Palestinian was shot in the leg.