Evening Brief, Monday 19 October

Russian strikes overnight damaged more than 10 Ukrainian energy facilities, Volodymyr Zelensky said, leaving at least 550,000 households without electricity. Repair crews were working across regions from Kyiv and Odesa to Kharkiv, Rivne and Volyn. Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the Kyiv region and used more than 200 drones of several types, including jet-powered Shahed models.

Yuriy Ignat, the Ukrainian air force spokesman, said Russia launched two ballistic missile attacks on the capital overnight, at 23:00 and 03:00. He said the first came without warning from partner countries, and officials were examining why. He identified Iskander-M and S-400 missiles and said launch signals are normally passed by partner countries to a Ukrainian operations centre.

The military damage landed inside a sharper political row with Washington. Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelensky of prolonging the war, defended his refusal to sign the Graham Act sanctions package and said talks were making progress, including on prisoner exchanges. Volodymyr Zelensky told Bloomberg that Washington appeared to be pushing Ukraine towards surrender through diesel and arms decisions, said the United States was sending only 12 Patriot missiles a month and proposed that Ukraine stop hitting Russian refineries if Patriot deliveries sped up. He also warned of dangerous days before the US midterm elections on 3 November.

Emmanuel Macron rejected Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez's resignation after a weekend of riots and looting in France. The Elysée said Emmanuel Macron judged that police needed Laurent Nuñez's continued command during the emergency, while acknowledging failures in forecasting and intelligence before the unrest. He told Laurent Nuñez to say openly where planning fell short and to introduce new street-policing methods quickly.

Speaking to France Inter, Laurent Nuñez accepted personal responsibility.

“I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything that is happening.”

Laurent Nuñez blamed troublemakers, looters and far-left activists, and said police tactics must adapt to highly mobile groups. He also admitted that authorities had lost control in some big cities on Saturday, when hundreds of businesses were looted. The latest government figures cited almost 2,400 arrests and more than 500 injured officers across the country.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked prefects to order some curfews after fires, barricades and attacks on public buildings. In Marseille, the prefect banned protests and gatherings from noon to 8 p.m. on Monday. Ligue 1 clubs Marseille and Lille said city-centre shops had been vandalised and looted, with Lille's outlet closed until further notice. In Limoges, flames swept through the 19th-century town hall and its roof collapsed.

The World Food Programme said a funding gap will force it to cut Gaza food assistance by 500,000 people each month. The total number helped will fall by about a third, from 1.6m to 1.1m. The agency framed the decision as a way to stretch remaining resources for longer, not as a sign that need has fallen.

• All aid before1,600,000
• All aid after1,100,000
• Flour boxes before1,100,000
• Flour boxes after600,000

The cuts reach kitchens first. Community kitchens will serve 150,000 hot meals a day, down from 250,000. Families in hard-to-reach areas, including places near the Yellow Line at the edge of Israel's military control, will receive a meal every second day instead of daily. The number of Gazans receiving flour and ration boxes will fall from 1.1m to 600,000 each month.

The agency says it received less than half the money it had in earlier years for Palestinian operations in 2026 and needs $450m to keep critical work running over the next six months. Shaun Hughes, the WFP director for the Palestinian territories, said the cuts are driven by money, not by lower needs or lack of access. Nearly all of Gaza's 2.1m residents remain displaced, and two-thirds rely on food aid to survive. A July UN food watchdog report counted 1.2m people in crisis-level food insecurity and more than 200,000 in emergency, the phase before famine on the IPC scale.

Israeli police said they detained 10 suspects after attacks on foreigners in the West Bank, including a US photographer and European diplomats. Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, a US citizen, was beaten on Friday while covering a Palestinian olive harvest and suffered four broken vertebrae and two broken ribs. On Saturday, masked settlers armed with sticks surrounded a convoy carrying Belgian, French and Polish diplomats in Taybeh and threw rocks at the vehicles.

Police said Operation Olive Leaf involved police, Border Police, Israel Defense Forces troops and the Shin Bet, with aerial support in the Binyamin area north of Jerusalem. Officers seized vehicles and items they said linked suspects to the incidents, and a police video appeared to show two slingshots at one property. Army Radio reported that the suspects are Israeli citizens, though police have not named them.

West Bank police commander Moshe Finchi described the legal basis for the detentions.

“Suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the violent incidents, violating a military commander's order concerning a closed military zone, and illegal construction.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the violence and blamed Israeli rioters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged caution, said the diplomats had entered a sensitive area without coordinating with the military, and called the facts around the attack on Heidi Levine unclear. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee demanded a full investigation and prosecution. Israel votes on 27 October, with Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition projected to lose its majority.

Valencia lifted confinement in most of the 145 municipalities locked down after Storm Adam flooded the south of Valencia province and the north of Alicante province. The remaining movement restrictions cover Bellreguard, Daimús, Miramar, Oliva, Piles, Xàbia, Pego and Els Poblets. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had urged people in the affected areas to avoid travel and stay on upper floors.

• Forna720
• Pego693
• Oliva351
• Miramar316

Rescue teams had carried out 500 rescues by Monday afternoon, government delegate Pilar Bernabé said. The Guardia Civil reported 226 evacuations, the Military Emergency Unit completed more than 200 rescues, and the National Police helped about 25 people outside its usual area. In Oliva, rescuers moved people by boat and helicopter, while 130 displaced residents sheltered in a municipal facility.

Three people died in the Valencian Community during the storm. In Oliva, a 79-year-old woman was found dead in her home by Military Emergency Unit personnel, and a man of about 64 died after a cardiac arrest at Eurocamping. A woman died on Sunday after entering the sea at Sagunt during the maritime storm declared by authorities.

Emergencies and interior councillor Juan Carlos Valderrama said weather conditions were improving but warned residents to stay cautious.

“People whose homes were flooded, who were trapped or who were on the rooftops must be rescued first.”

Houthi forces fired three ballistic missiles at the al-Alam camp in Shabwa province, hitting a training centre for security and police recruits, according to the Yemeni armed forces. Four government and medical sources told Reuters the strike came during a morning exercise. The Houthi-run Saba news agency said the group had targeted Saudi troop buildups at the camp and did not mention recruits.

The toll shifted through the day. Shabwa provincial authorities said more than 53 recruits were killed and more than 200 injured, while earlier reports gave lower figures. Hospitals in Shabwa were overwhelmed, and the most seriously wounded were moved to Aden, Hadramout and Al Mukalla. Deputy governor Fahd Al-Khulaifi warned that the count could rise.

“The number of martyrs is very high and is expected to rise.”

Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, promised a hard response and asked UN secretary-general António Guterres to classify the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organisation. Shabwa's provincial authority called the attack a military escalation, and Governor Awad bin Al-Wazir visited wounded people in hospital. An inquiry is planned into how so many troops were left exposed to missile fire.

The strike sits inside a wider escalation involving Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. Saudi authorities accused Tehran of encouraging the violence and said the Houthis had rejected a Saudi proposal for talks in Muscat. Shabwa holds major oil and gas fields and the Balhaf liquefied natural gas terminal, Yemen's largest energy facility.