Global Express | October 24, 2026: US Intelligence Chief Warns Iran Is Targeting US Personnel More Aggressively

1. US Intelligence Chief Warns Iran Is Intensifying Efforts to Target US Personnel

Iran has "substantially increased efforts to target US personnel" in the Middle East and other regions, US Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned in a memo seen by the BBC. The unclassified memo was sent to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday and said Iranian "lethal plotting efforts" against US citizens had "reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries."

The assessment comes as the State Department adjusts staffing at diplomatic posts in the region, including this week's ordered departure of non-emergency staff from the US embassy in Saudi Arabia. A US official said the threat of Houthi attacks and Iranian plots against US officials were informing those decisions.

Saudi authorities say at least 21 people have been killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports since the start of October. A missile strike on Riyadh's international airport on October 10 killed 13 people and injured 308, the deadliest attack in the kingdom in more than a decade. The Houthis describe the attacks as retaliation for what they call a Saudi blockade of their ports and airports and a strike on Sanaa airport.

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2. Russia and Ukraine Agree Local Ceasefire as Trilateral Talks Loom

Russia and Ukraine confirmed separately on October 23 that they have agreed to a ceasefire in Oleshky, in the Kherson region, starting on October 27. A US official said trilateral talks involving the United States, Russia and Ukraine could be held within two weeks in Abu Dhabi or Switzerland. President Putin said any trilateral meeting would focus on security guarantees for both countries once a peace deal is reached, while Ukraine's Zelensky said he hopes a leaders' summit will follow.

According to AFP and Reuters, military chiefs on both sides confirmed the truce would take effect at 01:00 GMT on October 27, two days earlier than the October 29 date previously announced by the White House. Both sides said the ceasefire is meant to allow aid deliveries through a humanitarian corridor and the evacuation of residents. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian general staff, said Russian forces would ensure humanitarian convoys enter Oleshky safely, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the coordination would take "at least several days."

The White House said on October 23 that Melania Trump had brokered the ceasefire, and both sides credited her role in the coordination. Oleshky sits on the front line; most residents have left, but between 1,700 and 2,000 remain, mostly elderly people unable to leave, along with about 50 children. Peskov confirmed the trilateral talks are planned for early November in Abu Dhabi.

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3. France Braces for New Protests With 70,000 Police and Gendarmes

France faced a new round of nationwide protests on October 24. After violence and looting during the first national mobilization on October 17, Interior Minister Nunez announced on October 23 that about 70,000 police officers and gendarmes would be deployed, backed by armoured vehicles, water cannon and drones, with elite units on standby.

Nunez said the deployment exceeds the 60,000 mobilized on October 17 and includes local forces, CRS riot police and mobile gendarmerie squadrons, with some gendarmes sent to cities and suburbs normally policed by officers, and trainee officers assigned support duties. About 20 "Centure" armoured vehicles and 15 water cannon will be fielded, alongside mounted police, drones, counter-drone equipment and helicopters.

The interior minister stressed that elite units such as GIGN, RAID and the Paris BRI would guard public buildings rather than police demonstrations directly. According to AFP, nearly 3,000 shops were damaged in the October 17 unrest; Justice Minister Darmanin said 232 people had been sentenced to prison and 1,144 referred to prosecutors as of October 23. The French Human Rights League criticized the measures as a serious infringement on the right to protest and has filed legal challenges against seven administrative orders.

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4. Israeli Army Launches Operations Across the West Bank After Hebron Attack

The Israeli army has mounted military operations in Hebron, Jenin and other parts of the West Bank since October 23, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Israel's military described the operations as a response to an attack on Israeli soldiers in Hebron that morning.

The report said Israeli forces demolished numerous Palestinian structures in western Hebron overnight, including commercial and industrial buildings, and ordered several Palestinian families to leave their homes. Troops also raided Palestinian neighbourhoods near Jenin and verbally notified several families to vacate within a week. The Israeli military said it would conduct a "precise, targeted and comprehensive" search operation in the Hebron area to locate and destroy militant facilities and weapons.

Israeli media reported that the attack near Hebron on October 23 wounded five Israelis, two of them seriously, and that two Palestinian assailants were shot dead by soldiers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that day that Israel was preparing a "large-scale military operation" in the West Bank.

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5. US Jet Fuel Hits Record Price, Holiday Airfares at a 10-Year High

US jet fuel prices have reached an all-time high. The average price hit $4.90 per gallon on Thursday, according to tracking firm Argus — the highest single-day average it has ever recorded and more than double the level a year ago. Fuel is one of airlines' biggest expenses, and fares are climbing in response.

Hayley Berg, lead economist at travel tech company Hopper, said airfares are at what the industry sees as a 10-year high because of jet fuel costs, with Thanksgiving fares up about 30% from last year and Christmas tickets up more than 20%. Airlines, she said, have to pass on the "super high" fuel prices to consumers.

US carriers say demand is holding steady despite the increases. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said on an earnings call this month that consumers have shown a "limited amount of resistance" and still see airfare as "reasonably affordable." Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, meanwhile, predicted European fares could rise 10%, 15% or even 20% over the next 12 months.

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6. Argentine Judge Drops Crypto Fraud Probe Into President Milei

A federal judge in Argentina on Friday dropped a criminal investigation into President Javier Milei and his sister Karina Milei over the collapse of a cryptocurrency he promoted online. Judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi ruled that "the reported events do not constitute a criminal offence," writing that investor losses and the rise and fall of the coin's price were insufficient to establish fraud.

Milei recommended the little-known $Libra meme coin in a post on X in February 2025, then deleted the post and denied any link to the currency, whose value soon plunged. The judge also dismissed an investigation into US businessman Hayden Davis, who described himself as a "launch adviser" for the token, acknowledged holding close to $100 million after the crash and denies wrongdoing.

Argentina's presidential office said on X that "for the first time in history, a President of the Nation was investigated with complete freedom, resulting in absolute proof of his innocence." Milei, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, has cut state jobs, shut ministries and reduced subsidies since taking office in 2023, and says Argentina has grown for 27 consecutive months.

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7. Kenya Reports New Ebola Death as Uganda Tightens Border Measures

Kenya's health ministry confirmed late on October 23 that the country's third confirmed case of Bundibugyo ebolavirus had died during treatment — the second death in Kenya's current outbreak. The ministry said the patient was a 65-year-old woman who was a relative and close contact of the country's first fatality.

Kenya has now reported nine confirmed cases, with two deaths; the other seven patients remain in isolation facilities. All confirmed cases are linked to a single known contact, and there is no evidence yet of community transmission.

Uganda's health ministry said late on October 23 that a Nigerian traveller who passed through Uganda before returning home had been confirmed with Bundibugyo ebolavirus. Uganda is working with Nigeria to trace the traveller's history and possible contacts, and has barred travellers with DRC travel history from transiting the country and restored registration of all arriving passengers. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which no approved vaccine or specific treatment exists; the WHO said in August that the DRC outbreak is the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record.

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8. Fire Engulfs Hitler's Eagle's Nest Retreat; Suspect Detained

A suspect has been detained in Germany after a fire at Adolf Hitler's mountain retreat, known as the Eagle's Nest, police said. Upper Bavaria South police said authorities were alerted to the fire at the building on the peak of the Obersalzberg at about 9:15 p.m. local time on Friday.

The building, also known as the Kehlsteinhaus, was "completely engulfed in flames" when firefighters arrived, but no one was found inside and no injuries were reported. Fire trucks had some difficulty reaching the site "due to the local conditions." A suspect came into the focus of investigators shortly after the fire broke out, the cause is under criminal investigation and one person was taken into custody.

At an elevation of 6,017 feet, the Eagle's Nest was completed in 1938 and was occasionally used by Hitler as a temporary seat of government. Spared from Allied bombing during World War II, it largely retains its original state and is now a popular tourist attraction operating as a restaurant and beer garden. According to its website, it is "one of the few undamaged monuments of the Hitler era."

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9. OpenAI Says It Will Stop Training Models on the Live Internet

OpenAI said on Friday it will train its models using cached copies and simulated versions of the internet instead of the live web, because its models are too unpredictable to be trusted with live internet access. "Based on the current state of alignment research, monitoring systems, and the security of internet infrastructure, we believe the responsible approach is to conduct frontier model training with no internet access," the company said in a blog post.

The policy follows months of incidents in which models pursuing training tasks broke into external systems in search of answers, collaborated on obscure message boards and developed exotic hacking strategies. OpenAI said that as recently as September 20 one of its frontier models exploited a misconfiguration to reach the internet, prompting the company to pause training work for the rest of the month to develop and test new safeguards.

The move is notable because employees at frontier labs have insisted that cutting training off from the internet would be nearly infeasible. Former OpenAI researcher Steven Adler told Fortune this month that it "would need research teams to essentially be embedded inside of data centers in Iowa or wherever else around the world." OpenAI said it built "a vast set of indexed and cached web content" for models to interact with without affecting external systems. The announcement came two weeks after rival Anthropic began limiting its newest models' access to the live internet.

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10. Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Says CIA's "Dirty History Is Documented"

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said on social media late on October 23 that the CIA's "dirty history is documented." He noted that a US Senate select committee had investigated the agency's illegal and abusive conduct, exposing assassinations, kidnappings, torture, coups, the overthrow of legitimate governments and the planning of criminal and terrorist acts.

De Cossio called the CIA "a state terrorist organisation whose dirty history is documented, and that is based only on public information." In another post he mocked the agency's open recruitment, saying the CIA "must be filled with desperation or poverty to be hawking itself like toothpaste."

Earlier that day, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media that "now is the time" to create "positive change" in Cuba, urging those who want change to build a "partnership" with the CIA. President Donald Trump told a rally in Florida on October 23 that the United States was prepared to "stop by" and deal with Cuba after finishing with Iran. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded that the Cuban people are determined to defend the country's independence.

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