🇺🇳🇵🇸 The World Food Programme cuts monthly food aid for about 500,000 people in the Gaza Strip because of funding shortages, reducing the number of recipients from 1.6 million to 1.1 million.

The World Food Programme said its efforts had mitigated the effects during a famine last year in Gaza -- a description of the situation disputed by Israel -- and warned that conditions had not improved to the point that it can take away aid.

"People are not safe. Airstrikes continue on a daily basis. People continue to be displaced," Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, told AFP at the agency's office in east Jerusalem.

"Almost everybody remains without a permanent home to live in. And the humanitarian conditions are brutal," he said.

According to the latest assessments, 1.4 million people -- or two-thirds of Gaza's population -- are still "acutely food insecure" and need humanitarian assistance to survive, he said.

In August last year, the UN's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said that Gaza was suffering famine conditions. Israel, which has blockaded the territory and attacked it relentlessly since the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on it by Hamas, described the finding as a lie.

The famine classification was lifted in December, two months after a US-brokered ceasefire was announced in Gaza. Israel has kept striking Gaza since then, vowing to kill anyone involved in the October 7 attack.

🔗 https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261019-un-agency-slashes-gaza-food-aid-over-funding-warns-needs-persist

🇮🇩 Indonesian stocks plunge to six-year low as MSCI downgrade fears mount

The MSCI Indonesia Index has fallen 47% this year as of Friday, data provided by the bank showed, with foreign investors withdrawing a net $5.1 billion from Indonesian equities over the period.

Foreign ownership of Indonesian stocks has declined to 25% in October from 27% in January, while the value of foreign holdings has nearly halved to approximately $130 billion from $250 billion, the bank said.

Despite the steep declines, Goldman cautioned that Indonesian equities may not have bottomed. The MSCI Indonesia Index’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio has fallen to 7.3 times, its lowest level since the global financial crisis, but remains above historical troughs.

The strategists also expect Indonesia’s central bank to raise interest rates twice more, by 25 basis points each in the fourth quarter of 2026 and first quarter of 2027, potentially adding further pressure to economic growth and equity valuations.

🔗 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/19/indonesian-stocks-msci-downgrade-fears-mount.html

🇩🇪🚙 VW plans to freeze salaries until 2030, works council says

Volkswagen plans to freeze salaries for its 660,000 staff worldwide until 2030, the group's works ​council said on Monday, confirming an earlier report ‌by Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The Global Works Council said it had received internal information about the executive board's plans

Volkswagen declined ​to comment on "speculation". A spokesperson added that a ​new round of talks later this week ⁠would be the forum for any proposals on ​labour costs

The works council called the management's approach "absurd" and ​said it expected strong resistance to what is described as the plan's "rather unrealistic" implementation

"At Volkswagen, pay development is decided ​at the negotiating table, not by decree from ​the executive boardroom," a spokesperson for Germany's trade union IG Metall ‌said

Relations ⁠between Volkswagen and its labour representatives have deteriorated in recent months, as CEO Oliver Blume pushes ahead with the most radical restructuring in the German auto ​group's history
The ​Sueddeutsche Zeitung ⁠reported the news earlier on Monday, citing internal documents

The absence of pay rises ​could mean a loss of income ​of around ⁠10% for those affected, due to inflation, the paper said

The paper report said the new global management ⁠guidelines, ​effective from the fourth quarter, ​also include cuts to variable pay, special payments, benefits, and jobs.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/vw-plans-freeze-salaries-until-2030-works-council-says-2026-10-19/

🇨🇦🇨🇦🗳 Alberta votes on leaving Canada; separatist movement likely to outlast expected defeat

Alberta holds a nonbinding referendum on Monday on whether the western province should secede from Canada, a debate many believe will ​not be settled by what is widely expected to be a defeat for the separatist cause.

Polls have consistently shown that a majority of ‌Alberta voters oppose splitting from Canada. Economic grievances have fueled the independence campaign in the province, which is home to 5 million people and slightly smaller than Texas despite having one-sixth the population.

The Alberta separatist movement adds to the pressures on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has made defending Canada's sovereignty a central mission as he confronts US tariffs and ​President Donald Trump's repeated calls for Canada to become the 51st state.

Many Alberta separatists believe the Liberal Party-led federal government in Ottawa has constrained the Conservative-governed province's oil industry ​through environmental policies, and that Alberta, the country's energy heartland, contributes more to Canada's economy than it receives in return.

An Angus Reid poll released Friday showed 66% of Albertans plan to vote to remain in Canada, but three in five believe "there will never be an end to the separatist movement" in the province.

"This issue is not going away now. ​Because the separatists are mobilized. They've networked. They're connected," said Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt in Calgary.

While separatist sentiment has existed in the province for ​decades, Premier Danielle Smith is the first Alberta leader to put the question to voters. Smith, who has urged Albertans to remain in Canada, called the referendum after months of pressure from ‌a small ⁠but vocal flank of her governing United Conservative Party.

If a majority votes in favor, Smith has said she would seek a binding referendum on separation.

Among the one-third of Albertans who would vote in favor of a future binding referendum on separation, 60% told pollsters their motivation was to "send a message" to Canada's federal government. Only 37% of respondents to the Angus Reid poll said their ⁠motivation was ​an independent nation.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/alberta-votes-leaving-canada-separatist-movement-likely-outlast-expected-defeat-2026-10-19/

🇺🇸❌🇪🇺 US threatens Europe over Starlink restrictions. Ambassador Andrew Puzder warns about ‘devastating’ retaliation if Brussels goes ahead with plans to limit spectrum access for non-EU companies

European companies face “devastating” retaliation from Washington if Brussels presses ahead with plans to restrict American rivals such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX from parts of the European market, the US ambassador to the EU has warned.

Andrew Puzder’s warning comes after the European Commission this year proposed reserving part of its spectrum band that allows smartphones to connect directly to satellites for European players. That would limit the frequencies for Chinese and US companies such as SpaceX, which operates the Starlink satellite network.

Asked whether European companies should fear retaliation, Puzder told the FT that they “should be wary that it could happen and it would be very devastating for those companies”, given the size of the American market.

The proposed changes to the bloc’s spectrum allocation have already raised fierce criticism from SpaceX, which has warned the move risks poorer connectivity in Ukraine where its Starlink service has been critical to civilian and military communications since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The proposed changes are part of a broader push to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty.

European policymakers are seeking to reduce their dependence on American technology amid concerns about the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump and the risk of relying on foreign companies for critical infrastructure.

The European Commission has introduced a Cloud and AI Development Act that would impose sovereignty requirements on providers of sensitive cloud services, while seeking to help European technology companies to scale up and provide alternatives to US tech companies.

Puzder said he recognised Europe’s right to protect sensitive government information but warned against using legislation to favour domestic companies at the expense of American competitors.

“If the purpose is to make United States less competitive, I think that that’s not a legitimate goal of this kind of legislation,” Puzder said. “You don’t make European companies more competitive by making US companies less competitive.

“We have best-in-class products in this area. They’re reliable products, they’re trusted products. We don’t need some kind of synchronised mediocrity.”

The ambassador also questioned whether the EU’s enforcement of its Digital Markets Act, which seeks to curb the power of the world’s largest technology companies, was really aimed at improving competition or more at generating revenue for the European budget, given the multibillion-euro fines on American companies.

“You start to wonder, are we trying to deal with the competition in the digital marketplace or are we trying to generate revenue from American companies to benefit Europe?”

🔗 https://archive.ph/NcR12