Evening Brief, Tuesday 20 October

A drone struck Amiet Market north of Abyei town around 11am on Monday and hit a fuel depot that served local businesses. Yohanna Akol Ngor, caretaker information minister for the Abyei administration, said on Tuesday that 153 deaths had been recorded and that the toll was still rising while the fire burned. The count replaced an earlier figure of 73, and independent confirmation of responsibility has not emerged.

South Sudan's Foreign Ministry accused Sudan's military of carrying out the strike and summoned Sudan's ambassador. Sudan's army did not answer a request for comment, but a military source told the BBC the army had attacked what it described as a fuel supply site for the Rapid Support Forces. A diplomatic source told Reuters the depot had previously supplied RSF troops. Abyei's status has remained unresolved since a 2005 peace agreement and was still unsettled when South Sudan became independent in 2011.

MSF said more than 20 wounded people reached Ameth Bek Hospital, where its teams worked with South Sudanese health staff. The strike followed several drone attacks in West Kordofan, Nyala and Khartoum, and the UN said drones now account for most civilian deaths in Sudan. Fighting between Sudan's army and the RSF has continued since April 2023, and aid workers estimate that more than 14m people have been forced from their homes.

Helen Haines, a 65-year-old independent federal MP, remained in critical but stable condition after a driver struck her outside her electoral office in Wangaratta, Victoria. Investigators say a white Toyota LandCruiser made a U-turn, hit her, then reversed and hit her again. She was pinned between two vehicles, treated locally, then airlifted to the Alfred hospital in Melbourne, where reports citing ABC said she lost one leg and surgeons worked to save the other.

Police arrested a 43-year-old man at the scene and charged him with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and causing harm to a public official. Officers also found a knife in the car and searched a property in Tarrawingee. Police have not confirmed a motive, and they say the incident appears isolated, with no other known threats linked to it.

Ricky Jefferies, a local barber, ran from his shop, pulled the driver from the car and took a knife from his pocket. He said others rushed in even though the vehicle was still running.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the attack deliberate and phoned Ricky Jefferies to thank him. Political leaders and security agencies have warned since 2021 that threats against public figures have increased, and ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess cited elevated grievance and intolerance.

Italy's government prepared a decree-law after groups of youths smashed shops, looted supermarkets and clashed with police in Milan and other cities over the weekend. Confcommercio put the damage at around €1bn, and many stores in Milan's fashion district stayed shut on Monday out of fear of more destruction. ANSA counted more than 270 people detained, most of them minors, while reports differed on the number of injured police officers.

Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said 500 soldiers would be deployed in Milan with judicial police powers. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni promised a firm response after an emergency security meeting, and reported options include mandatory arrest for people who cause damage at demonstrations and new powers to ban gatherings. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said the cabinet should let the military act like police for three months in support of the Carabinieri, Polizia and Guardia di Finanza.

Crosetto described the unrest as a different kind of threat, shaped through TikTok, social media and YouTube.

The hard line overlaps with a separate diesel dispute. Truck organisations kept blocking roads in southern Italy, and Matteo Salvini said the government was trying to release €430m in funds. Giuseppe Conte accused the government of answering cost-of-living protests with security measures, while Sergio Mattarella called for a thorough analysis of the violence.

CBC projected early on Tuesday that Alberta voters had rejected a proposal to begin a process that could lead toward independence from Canada. With more than 1m votes counted and about a third of ballots tallied, roughly 76% backed remaining in Canada and about 23% supported starting a route that could eventually lead to a second separation vote. Elections Alberta said the remaining results could take days to count.

The ballot was not a direct independence referendum. It sat among ten questions covering immigration, healthcare, education and provincial powers, but it became the political prize. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who grew up in Edmonton, warned voters against using the question merely to send Ottawa a message.

Premier Danielle Smith called the referendum under pressure from separatists inside her United Conservative Party, though she opposes independence. Separatists had hoped for at least 30% support, and some had looked for as much as 45%. Alberta holds the world's fourth-largest proven oil reserves in its oil sands, and Le Temps put its contribution at 15% of Canadian GDP, so even a failed push forced Ottawa to campaign hard for unity.

Google Cloud traced a string of failures to a power event in its europe-west2 region, a cluster of data centres in the London area. The disruption began late on 19 October and spilled into 20 October, causing errors and intermittent network failures across several services. Because the London region appeared to be Google Cloud's only UK location, the outage landed hardest in Britain, though any app relying on hosted services there could feel it abroad.

Revolut became the most visible casualty. The digital bank said card payments, transfers, cash withdrawals and sign-ins were down or partly unavailable, and Downdetector logged more than 1,500 reports about Revolut earlier in the day. Lloyds, Halifax and HSBC also reported problems. Rightmove, Royal Mail, BT and DPD drew hundreds of reports, while HM Courts & Tribunals Service said its secure cloud video platform for hearings in England and Wales went down.

Google said partial improvement would become visible within 30 minutes of one update, with remaining services improving afterwards. By early afternoon it reported that most workloads in the region were recovering, although customers might still struggle to start new operations. A Downing Street spokesperson said the government was in contact with the company to restore services quickly. Italian consumer group Adusbef said Revolut customers in Italy also faced payment, transfer and ATM problems and asked for automatic compensation.

Steve Witkoff is due in Oslo on Tuesday for talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European representatives, according to a US official cited by Axios. Norway said Zelenskyy had asked Norway and Finland to host a meeting at what it called a critical moment for Ukraine. Jonas Gahr Støre, Alexander Stubb, representatives of the E4 group, the EU and NATO are also expected, although Reuters said the schedule remained provisional.

The US official described two tracks. One covers Ukraine's future, including credible security guarantees, European integration and a postwar economic framework. The other aims to turn that work into a comprehensive proposal to Russia that would end the war and create a new security architecture between Russia and Europe. American, Ukrainian and European representatives worked on the proposals over the past week after earlier talks at Witkoff's Shell Bay club in Florida.

Jared Kushner, who usually travels with Witkoff, has the flu and is expected to join virtually. After Oslo, Witkoff plans to go to Moscow, where he hopes to meet Vladimir Putin and present ideas developed with Ukraine and European partners. Reuters described the Moscow leg as preliminary, and US authorities had not publicly confirmed it. Witkoff is also expected to press for the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 73-year-old American whom Washington says Russia wrongfully detained.