Global Express | October 1, 2026 — Pakistan Strikes Two Sites in Afghanistan; Kabul Says 9 Women and Children Killed

1. Pakistan Strikes Two Sites in Afghanistan; Kabul Says 9 Women and Children Killed

Source: Al Jazeera

Pakistan's information ministry said its forces targeted "camps and hideouts" used by armed groups in two locations in Afghanistan, killing at least 22 fighters. Kabul accused Islamabad of killing at least nine women and children and wounding 11 others in attacks on its Kunar and Helmand provinces. Al Jazeera said it could not independently verify the claims made by both sides.

Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban government, said the attacks took place late on Wednesday and destroyed three houses in northeastern Kunar and southern Helmand provinces. He wrote on X: "We condemn this act and consider it an aggression and crime against all accepted principles."

Pakistan's Information Ministry said the strikes were based on "credible intelligence" and targeted the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), adding that initial reports suggested "killing of twenty two terrorists." The attacks come amid an escalation in fighting between the neighbours after three months of relative calm. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said last week it had documented more than 1,100 civilian casualties in the country in cross-border violence so far this year.

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2. Ethiopia Fighting Escalates in Tigray, Killing 52 Civilians in Alamata

Source: BBC

At least 52 civilians have been killed during three days of heavy fighting around Alamata in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, hospital sources told the BBC. It appears government troops have taken control of the town from regional fighters and intend to push north towards Mekelle, the region's main city. Social media clips show army tanks on Alamata's streets.

Clashes broke out last week after months of tension between the government and the party that controls Tigray, with both accusing each other of violating a 2022 deal that ended a two-year civil war. Fighting has also affected neighbouring regions, with 33 tourists stranded for the last week in Lalibela, a Unesco world heritage site.

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said more than 700 wounded people had been admitted to hospitals it supports in Tigray over the last few days. A doctor at Alamata General Hospital, who requested anonymity, told the BBC the fighting took place between Saturday and Monday and involved heavy explosives and artillery, some of which landed in residential homes. Those killed included children as young as three days old, mothers and cattle herders. Banking services and internet access in Tigray have been cut.

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3. Putin Shows No Sign of Stopping the War as Russia Doubles Down on Ukraine

Source: BBC

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed Russia's parliament on Wednesday. Last month's legislative vote produced a State Duma even more pro-Putin than anything before it, with the ruling United Russia party now holding more MPs than ever — allowing the Kremlin to claim it has been handed a huge mandate from the Russian people.

Everything points to Putin continuing Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, despite his country's huge battlefield losses to date and the damage being done to Russia's economy. Putin's speeches and statements suggest he remains confident that Russia can secure a military victory. The BBC reported that Moscow is encouraged by the shortage of air defence missiles in Ukraine and by the expectation that Russian strikes this winter will increase pressure on Ukrainians.

Western officials believe Russia has been waging an escalating hybrid war on European countries through cyber-attacks, acts of sabotage and drones violating European airspace. Asked about this, Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, replied that it is "a war Europe is waging against us." Prominent foreign policy strategist Sergei Karaganov warned that "sooner or later we'll feel the need to escalate."

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4. Somali Pirates Kill Five Crew Members on Hijacked Tanker

Source: Al Jazeera

Pirates killed five crew members on board a Palau-flagged oil tanker off the coast of Somalia before security forces rescued the ship, according to Somali authorities. Among those killed were three from Pakistan, one from Myanmar and one from India, while three Pakistanis and one Indian were injured.

The deaths appear to be the first at the hands of Somali pirates in more than a decade. The Information Ministry of Puntland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia, said in a statement that a rescue mission had freed the ship and captured 16 suspected pirates. The MT Honour 25, which authorities said was carrying 18,500 barrels of oil, was seized by pirates off Somalia on April 21.

India's embassy in Kenya said it was "deeply saddened" by the killing of the Indian crew member. Puntland's Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Mohamed Abdulkadir Salah, told Al Jazeera the operation showed the region's ability to secure its own waters. At least 15 attacks have been reported off Somalia since April, according to officials.

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5. EU and Canada to Announce Sweeping New Partnership Pact

Source: POLITICO Europe

A document obtained by POLITICO reveals that the EU and Canada will use a landmark summit next month to announce an expansive new partnership, ranging from breaking down digital trade barriers to joint support for Ukraine and investing in fighting wildfires.

"The world is rapidly changing with unprecedented geopolitical challenges as well as challenges across trade, energy, technology, climate, and resources," reads a draft joint statement to be issued by the two sides. The two sides plan to say at their summit in Montreal that they want to speed up investment in critical mineral projects, strengthen supply chains, and improve supply security, including by stockpiling critical resources to mitigate "market fluctuations and geopolitical impacts."

Ottawa and Brussels will also announce the joint purchase of 50 De Havilland water bombers, to be ready for use in Canada and Europe in 2030 to fight wildfires. Economic benefits would be conditional and can be taken away if non-members backslide on democracy or share sensitive tech with unfriendly governments, the plan says.

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6. South Korea's President Pushes Back on Alaska LNG Project After Trump Touts Seoul's Participation

Source: CNBC

U.S. President Donald Trump said the two countries had agreed to work on the Alaska LNG project, pegging its value at $50 billion. South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung emphasized that involvement in some of the projects remains subject to commercial considerations. Lee said participation in the Alaska LNG project was dependent on its financial viability and legal compliance, and that investments in nuclear power plants would also require assessment of commercial viability on a plant-by-plant basis.

Trump had hailed South Korean investments in his post, saying the investments would turn South Korea's commitments into "huge construction projects" and create "tens of thousands of American jobs." The joint statement earlier on Wednesday had mentioned that work on the project was contingent on "commercial reasonableness," without highlighting details on allocations toward the project.

The Alaska LNG project seeks to transport natural gas roughly 1,300 kilometers from fields on Alaska's North Slope to the southern part of the state, where it would be liquefied for export to markets including Asia. The project has faced longstanding questions over its economics given the large upfront investment required. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan had described it as "high-risk" last year. Overall, the investment package includes $22.3 billion for a 6,472-megawatt natural gas power facility in Encinal, Texas, that will supply electricity to co-located data centers.

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7. Mourners Bury DR Congo Official Killed After Defending Ebola Response

Source: Al Jazeera

Mourners have gathered in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to bury a local politician who his party said was beaten to death after he defended the government's Ebola response on the radio. The funeral for Marie-Celestin Karondwa was held in the city of Butembo on Wednesday.

Karondwa was attacked on Sunday at his home in Butembo, an Ebola hotspot in North Kivu province, according to his political party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDSP), which leads the DRC government. He died of his injuries at a local hospital. "They beat him up and then set the house on fire," his granddaughter, Sagesse Kavira, told The Associated Press at the funeral. It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, how many were involved or what motivated it.

The killing follows a series of attacks on health workers and other responders as the Central African nation battles its 17th and deadliest Ebola outbreak, which has so far recorded more than 8,000 cases, including nearly 4,000 deaths. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is no vaccine or specific treatment, according to the World Health Organization.

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8. Spain's 87-Year-Old Eviction Case: Woman to Return Home as Government Unveils New Measures

Source: NPR

The 87-year-old woman at the center of the most high-profile eviction case in Spain in recent years will return home, her lawyer said Tuesday. María del Carmen Abascal has been hospitalized since she was carried out on a stretcher from the apartment where she had lived for seven decades on Wednesday. Her case has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets in recent days and led the government to present measures to address the country's housing crisis.

Abascal, widely known as simply "Maricarmen," accepted a deal with the company that owns her apartment in the upscale Retiro neighborhood to return home as soon as she is discharged, her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, told The Associated Press. "She is very happy," said Duro. The agreement limits her rent to 30% of her income, meaning she would not pay more than the 500 euros ($570) per month she paid previously.

The coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialists announced the new measures earlier Tuesday. The government's main decree extends protection against evictions for vulnerable Spaniards until 2030, regulates room rentals, imposes a new tax on seasonal rentals and bans "speculative real estate purchases by vulture funds" until 2028, Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez said. "This has been thanks to the citizen movement. To Maricarmen. To the thousands of people in the streets," Spain's Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz wrote on social media.

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9. New OpenAI Product Fails Spectacularly During Live On-Stage Demo

Source: Futurism

At its annual DevDay conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, OpenAI unveiled its new AI agent called Dots. Powered by its GPT-6 Astra model, the agents are intended to be "always-on," doing stuff for you in the background constantly. But Dots didn't seem quite switched on when an OpenAI product team member tried to show off its capabilities to the crowd.

The member called the AI on her phone like you might a human secretary, and a few rings later the agent, nicknamed "Dottie," picked up. When she asked it to catch her up on user testing from the night before, Dots said it was "checking," but the AI never replied. After an agonizing ten seconds of awkward silence, she played it off, joking: "I guess Dottie's having a slow morning."

Per a blog post about the agent, when it has quicker starts to its day, it will be able to handle tasks in all sorts of professional settings, such as helping an app developer monitor user feedback and even create bugfixes on its own. Dots represents OpenAI's latest foray into personal AI helpers, and is clearly the company's answer to Meta's much-hyped Muse AI agent, down to its kawaii branding. It is currently locked behind OpenAI's $100 per month subscription tier.

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10. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Calls US Withdrawal From Iraq a 'Historic Victory'

Source: Lianhe Zaobao

Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Thursday welcomed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, calling it a "historic victory" and urging U.S. forces to leave the Middle East. According to AFP, the Guard said in a statement carried by state media that it congratulated "the proud Iraqi nation, the united front of the Islamic resistance, and the revolutionary fighters of the Islamic world" on this historic victory.

The U.S.-led coalition, which entered Iraq and Syria in 2014 to fight the Islamic State (IS) group, formally ended its mission and withdrew on Wednesday (September 30). IS once held large swaths of territory in both countries and carried out atrocities; the group was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but coalition forces stayed on to target its remnants.

The Guard said in its statement: "Twenty years of occupation showed that the U.S. presence brought no security; on the contrary, it is precisely the root of insecurity, terrorism and instability in West Asia." Baghdad and Washington agreed in 2024 to gradually end the coalition's mission. Iraqi Prime Minister al-Zaidi announced on Thursday that the new deadline for armed factions to hand over their weapons to the state is June 30, 2027.

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