Senior officials from Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will meet Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday to discuss regional security.

The meeting will include Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin.

Source: Reuters

Israel has delayed new strikes against Iran partly because it needs U.S. missile defense support, as its defensive munitions have been strained by the war.

Netanyahu has been pushing for new strikes against Iran, but Trump has refused to give the green light before the U.S. midterm elections.

A source familiar with the plans said: "The plans are ready, waiting for Trump’s approval, could be after the midterms."

Source: CNN

Iran’s FM Spox. Esmaeil Baghaei:

Tehran’s hosting of senior military and security officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye is a key development toward establishing regional diplomacy.

Lasting stability and security in the Middle East can only be achieved by relying on the region’s own countries, and this meeting could pave the way for broader cooperation.

France is expanding its nuclear deterrence role in Europe as confidence in U.S. security guarantees weakens.

Ten countries, including the UK, Germany, Poland and several Nordic nations, have joined Macron’s “forward deterrence” initiative.

The plan includes deploying French nuclear-capable fighter jets across Europe and improving intelligence sharing and early-warning systems to deter Russia.

The Baltic states are not included, while Italy has declined to join.

Source: WSJ

Brazilian President Lula:

We are going to master the entire system of artificial intelligence.

I don't want artificial intelligence in Mandarin. I don't want artificial intelligence in English. I want it in Portuguese, and you are going to make it happen.

Syria's new 2025–26 school textbooks, the first under President Ahmad al-Sharaa, have rewritten how the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule is taught.

The term "Great Arab Revolt" has been dropped and anti-Turkish language softened.

The 2017–18 Assad-era edition said the Great Arab Revolt (1916–1918), led by Sharif Hussein, aimed "to liberate the Arab lands from the Ottoman occupation and the rule of the Unionist Turks."

The new edition calls it "the rebellion movement of Hussein bin Ali," whose goal was "to break the Arab lands from the Ottoman State."

Where the old text said the war in the East was fought "to liberate the peoples from the injustices of the Turks," the new one says its goal was "to expel the Ottomans from the region."

A Houthi ballistic missile strike on a Saudi-run training base in Yemen's Shabwah province on Oct. 19 killed at least 75 people and wounded more than 200, Saudi troops among them.

Saudi and Yemeni officials briefed on the attack say it was the deadliest single Houthi strike of the new war.

Three missiles hit the al-Alam camp within a few minutes, just as Saudi officers were starting a training session for newly enlisted local forces.

Witnesses said four battalions had gathered when the first missile hit, and one of the later missiles struck recruits as they ran from the first blast.

Drones had been circling the base for days beforehand.

Relatives of the dead and wounded blamed the local Yemeni commander for ignoring those warnings.

Officials said the camp had no air-defense or early-warning systems, and Shabwah authorities are now pressing Riyadh to supply them quickly.

Zelensky:

We cannot talk about the neutrality of our state.

We cannot talk about limiting the Ukrainian army.

Restrictions on our army and Ukraine's neutrality are not up for discussion.

Zelensky:

It doesn't matter whether lifting sanctions is economically beneficial to America, Russia, Asia, Africa, Europe or Ukraine.

Sanctions were imposed because of Russian aggression, the seizure of our territories, illegal occupation and killings.

Therefore, lifting sanctions can only be linked to ending the war, diplomacy, reconstruction and security guarantees.

Zelensky:

Our strikes did not affect global prices, of course.

Russia's diesel exports are almost nothing in global terms. We talked about it — around 2%, something like that.

The other 98% comes from other exporters.

Zelensky:

If you don't enable Starlink for us, and that depends entirely on you, then give us something that no longer depends on Musk or Putin.

You say Musk doesn't want to do it? Okay.

Then give us Patriot missiles.

I think that is fair.

Zelensky:

At that moment, we received nothing.

Sanctions were lifted. Nobody gave us additional Patriot missiles.

Instead of expanding Starlink access, they reduced the speed of what we already had.

That is why there was a response. We are fighting for our lives.

Zelensky:

I do not currently see any demand from the major European economies to lift sanctions or restore energy alliances with the Russian Federation.

I don't see that, because we would react. I would certainly react.

Russia is expanding military recruitment in some of Africa’s poorest countries to offset heavy losses and manpower shortages in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian intelligence report.

Recruitment surged in Burundi (699 recruits, up from 30 in 2025) and Zimbabwe (530, up from 65), with increases also reported in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cameroon and DR Congo.

The shift follows warnings and objections from several African governments over recruitment practices, including false promises of civilian jobs.

Ukraine says it has identified 45,959 foreigners from 151 countries who signed Russian military contracts, including 5,451 Africans.

Source: Bloomberg

Anthropic says its AI model Claude bypassed a paywall to access Georgia's publicly available voter count data without human authorization.

The company said Claude did not access voter registration systems or alter voting records, and that safeguards have since been introduced to prevent similar actions.

Ukraine's parliament has extended martial law for another 90 days.

Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister claims Lula did not win the election fairly and that Brazil is no longer a democracy.

Trump's Board of Peace has appointed Shelley Greenspan, a former Biden White House aide, to lead outreach to Congress and Washington think tanks.

The move aims to build bipartisan support for Trump's Gaza peace plan, which has stalled over Netanyahu's refusal to take steps before Israel's October 27 elections.

The plan is expected to gain momentum after the elections and the formation of a new Israeli government.

Source: Axios