Global Express | October 23, 2026: Five Wounded in West Bank Checkpoint Attack as Netanyahu Orders Full Closure

1. Five Wounded in West Bank Checkpoint Attack as Netanyahu Orders Full Closure

Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli military checkpoint near Hebron on Friday, wounding at least five Israelis, two of them critically, according to Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service. The Israeli military said both gunmen were shot and killed, and imposed a "full siege" on Hebron after the attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the IDF to prepare for a full closure of the occupied West Bank starting today, though it was not clear exactly when such a closure would begin or how long it would last. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir called it "a serious terror attack," saying forces located the vehicle used by the gunmen, which was filled with "a large quantity" of ammunition intended for an attack "on a much larger scale."

Hamas praised the attack in a statement but did not claim responsibility. The shooting came four days before Israel holds elections for the first time since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. Netanyahu's main rival, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, said on X that he prayed for the full and speedy recovery of the wounded.

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2. Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake in Tibet Kills at Least 16

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Baqên County in the Nagqu region of Tibet on Thursday night, killing at least 16 people and injuring 65, including 11 with severe injuries, according to Chinese state media. Authorities declared an emergency and deployed rescue teams.

The county lies about 400 km (250 miles) north-east of Lhasa. In the affected area, 339 homes collapsed and electricity was cut, with reports that power had been restored in some areas by Friday morning. More than 12,400 people have been relocated. Rockfall has closed roads, making it harder for crews to reach high-altitude areas.

The US Geological Survey recorded seven tremors near the epicentre, the largest at magnitude 5.2 and a depth of 10 km. Premier Li Qiang called for "urgent efforts" on rescue operations, medical treatment for the injured and the resettlement of affected residents, noting the area sits at an altitude of about 4,800 metres and is prone to aftershocks. The Ministry of Emergency Management dispatched a working group, and the Chinese government announced it was allocating 50 million yuan for disaster relief.

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3. Deadly Fire at Canadian Military Base Sparked by Live Grenade Exercise

A fire that killed four soldiers at a western Canadian military base was sparked by an exercise using live grenades, a military official said on Thursday. Brigadier-General Vanessa Hanrahan, commander of the Canadian Forces Military Police Group, told reporters that high winds propelled the blaze across the Wainwright base in Alberta.

Hanrahan said a subsequent change in wind direction and velocity significantly increased the fire's intensity, and the flames spread to a training area. Because the blaze was in the "permanent danger area" of the range, firefighters were unable to combat it directly. The fire broke out on Saturday afternoon during high-intensity combat training involving Charlie Company of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, with about 84 soldiers split between a grenade range and an area for simulated attacks on enemy positions.

Four soldiers died and 39 were injured, with 27 requiring hospitalisation, in one of the worst peacetime tragedies for Canada's military. The soldiers and reserve members were training ahead of a planned deployment to Latvia, where Canadian forces have their largest international operation.

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4. Korean Border Tensions Rise as Kim Yo Jung Warns of Loudspeaker Rollout

Tension on the Korean Peninsula is ratcheting up again. Kim Yo Jung, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said loudspeakers broadcasting anti-South Korea propaganda would be activated within days along the entire 160-mile border, and warned Seoul of "the most horrible and distressing situation" if South Korea continues what Pyongyang calls interference in North Korean internal affairs, CBS News reported.

"This is not a threat," she said, "but a clear warning." On Wednesday she joined senior military officials to visit fortification sites along the border, saying North Korean tactical units had taken up positions, and accused South Korean forces of broadcasting warning messages and firing warning shots at multiple locations. South Korea acknowledged its forces fired warning shots, calling them "legitimate and defensive measures." There have been calls for immediate talks between the two Koreas to avert an accidental military confrontation.

Bob Carlin, a former US State Department analyst who took part in negotiations with Pyongyang and has followed the country for four decades, told CBS News that Kim's statements about "tactical units" are a cause for concern, and that talk of "deploying more tactical strike means" sounds like artillery and battlefield missile units. This week, online rumours that Kim Jong Un had died of a brain haemorrhage were discredited when state media released photos of him touring a clothing and footwear exhibition with his wife and teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae.

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5. Tech Selloff Pressures US Stocks as Nasdaq Posts Worst Session Since June

US equity futures edged lower on Friday after tech stocks sold off on concerns that the artificial intelligence trade could be faltering. Futures tied to the S&P 500 were down 0.28%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 316 points, or 0.59%, and Nasdaq-100 futures shed 0.1%. On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite slid 2.6% for its worst session since June, while the S&P 500 sank 1.2%, its worst day since July.

Worries about artificial intelligence spending dragged the US tech sector down 3%. Nvidia fell 4.4%, Alphabet dropped 3.2% and Advanced Micro Devices declined 8.1%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 6.7%, its worst decline since June. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that capital for the AI buildout was becoming constrained: "There's a scarcity of capital. The demand for capital is much greater than the availability of the capital."

The 10-year Treasury yield added 1 basis point to 4.9697%. Oil prices also rose, with West Texas Intermediate futures up 1.4% at $100.90 a barrel and Brent up 0.75% at $114, following reports that the US and Israel may be drawing up plans for renewed attacks on Iran.

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6. US Treasury Moves to Bar Institutional Investors From Buying Single-Family Homes

The US Treasury issued a proposed federal rule on Thursday to implement one of President Trump's signature housing affordability bills, which would bar institutional investors from buying single-family homes. The rule would prohibit such purchases starting January 7, 2027, unless a transaction is identified as an "excepted purchase," such as those involved in build-to-rent programmes, renovate-to-rent programmes and homeownership programmes.

"Under President Trump, this Administration continues to restore the path to affordable homeownership for millions of young and working families," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. He said Treasury was working to give American families and workers "a fair shot at purchasing homes in their communities by increasing housing supply and limiting large institutional investors' role in the market, while supporting a strong, stable housing market and avoiding unnecessary disruption."

The ROAD to Housing Act passed Congress but was neither signed nor vetoed by Trump, so it went into effect anyway. It defines institutional investors as those owning 350 homes or more. Trump had called the measure a "yawn" and later signed an executive order codifying some of its requirements. The proposed rule will add standards for build-to-rent programmes, provide a safe harbour for renovate-to-rent purchases and outline civil penalties when institutional investors do buy the homes. A 30-day public comment period will follow.

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7. Study: Europe's Summer Heat Killed More Than 50,000 People

Blistering record heat in Europe this summer helped kill more than 50,000 people, with nearly two-thirds of that death toll blamed on human-caused climate change, a new study found. Researchers modelled heat-related deaths for different age groups in 854 European cities during repeated heat waves in June, July and August, and found that 50,391 people died from warmer temperatures, of whom 32,619 died because of the extra heat caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas.

The study is due to be published in Nature Health. Lead author Clair Barnes, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, said infrastructure in much of Western and Northern Europe "is just not designed to cope with the sort of temperatures that we are seeing now," noting some European cities were 12C warmer than normal this summer. Co-author Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, a biostatistician at the same university, said about one-third of the deaths occurred between June 17 and July 1, when temperatures were 5.3C above normal.

This summer's toll is 71% higher than the previous deadliest summer, 29,480 in 2022. Italy, France, Spain and Germany had the highest death tolls. The authors said the figures are underestimates because they do not count a deadly heat wave in May and only look at 854 cities, home to about 40% of Europe's population.

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8. Hundreds of Ethiopians Cross Into Kenya to Flee Fighting in Border Town

Hundreds of Ethiopians have crossed into Kenya, fleeing fighting in the border town of Moyale, Kenyan police said on Thursday, with most of those arriving being women and children. They crossed through several entry points, including the Sessi, Kore, Biashara, Foundation and Miti areas.

According to Kenyan police, those who crossed were fleeing tensions between leaders of Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regional states. Police reported gunfire and chaotic scenes in Moyale. Ethiopian media reported that the fighting began as a dispute over raising the flag of the Somali Regional State on Sunday, then escalated into clashes between forces from the two regions.

The Kenya Red Cross said it was setting up temporary shelter and distributing essential items including cereal and porridge flour, with the response initially reaching 1,000 households, and that experts were assessing how many people were affected and what they needed. The regional clash is hundreds of kilometres away from a larger conflict in the northern Tigray region.

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9. AI Finds Severe PHP Flaws, Triggering Global Scramble to Patch Websites

Cyber-security firm Wiz Research, using OpenAI technology, announced on Wednesday that it had discovered security flaws in PHP, a programming language that helps run some 70 percent of the world's websites. OpenAI called the bug "one of the most impactful vulnerabilities in recent memory."

Wiz warned that successful exploitation could allow attackers to take control of affected servers, steal sensitive data and deface websites. The PHP Foundation released two patches designed to fix the vulnerabilities. The US National Security Agency warned organisations using PHP to "maintain heightened awareness" over the coming weeks, while the UK's National Cyber Security Center called on organisations to "take immediate action" and update to the latest fixed version.

Dozens of British and Finnish government services were taken offline this week, many French local government sites were briefly taken down, and China's industry ministry urged entities to review security gaps. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi issued "an urgent request for everyone to take action," saying that temporarily suspending websites can be an effective way to reduce risk if patching is difficult. Matthew Prince, head of Cloudflare, said his organisation saw tens of thousands of attempts to exploit the flaw in the first 45 minutes, and that the number was now in the millions.

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10. Japan-China High-Level Dialogue Stalls, With Little Hope for November APEC Summit

High-level dialogue between Japan and China has stalled with no sign of a breakthrough, Kyodo News reported on October 23, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in a parliamentary session last November, shortly after taking office, that a Taiwan contingency could constitute a "survival-threatening situation," souring bilateral ties.

The report said Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Japanese during a July visit to the Philippines that "Japan-China relations cannot go on like this, dialogue is needed." Wang, who is familiar with Japanese affairs, nodded but did not speak during the roughly one-minute conversation standing up. Beijing protested Takaichi's remarks on Taiwan, stepped up economic coercion including export controls, and has criticised her government's defence build-up as "new militarism."

There is widespread consensus that a meeting between Takaichi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC leaders' summit in Shenzhen in November is unlikely. One Japanese foreign ministry official said the parliamentary remarks "cannot be withdrawn," adding that Tokyo is prepared for a prolonged standoff. The report also noted new strains in the US-Japan relationship, including Washington listing the International Criminal Court as a sanctions target and the arrest of a US soldier stationed in Okinawa on suspicion of robbery and murder.

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