Global Express | October 11, 2026: Houthi Attack on Riyadh Airport Kills 12 as World Condemns

1. Houthi Attack on Riyadh Airport Kills 12 as World Condemns

Source: Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia has accused Yemen's Houthis of killing at least 12 people and wounding 300 others in a third attack on Riyadh's international airport this week. The General Authority of Civil Aviation said Saturday's victims included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt. It was the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade.

US President Donald Trump called the attack "terrible" and said he "will be speaking" with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman soon, adding he was evaluating whether the US should join the war against the Houthis. "We may. We're gonna look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we'll make a decision. We'll move very quickly," he said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the attack killed an American and called for an end to "these reprehensible attacks," saying the US stands with Saudi Arabia and its people.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is "deeply shocked" and strongly condemned the Houthi attack, saying strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international law and "must cease immediately." UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg called the deadly strikes on civilian airports "a grave escalation." Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Syria, India, Japan, Canada and Malaysia were among those condemning the attack, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney calling it "abhorrent."

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2. Sudan Paramilitary Drone Strike Kills 41 at Displacement Camp

Source: BBC

A drone attack by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed 41 people in the Blue Nile region bordering Ethiopia, a rights group has said. Emergency Lawyers said Friday's strike targeted a camp for displaced people in the Abu Shandi area. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it was "appalled by horrifying reports," adding that initial reports suggested most of the casualties were women and children.

The Sudanese army and paramilitary forces including the RSF have been locked in a power struggle since 2023, a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than 14 million people. It has also created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with millions needing medical help. The army controls much of Sudan's central and eastern regions, while the RSF is headquartered in the western region of Darfur and also controls areas in the south.

OCHA said the area reportedly struck on Friday had been "under sustained attack in recent weeks, displacing thousands of civilians and exposing many more to grave harm." Both sides have been accused of using drone attacks, it added.

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3. Eight Countries Jointly Reject US Sanctions on the ICC

Source: China.com

On October 9, the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Germany, France and Italy, Japan's foreign minister, and the foreign ministers of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement expressing regret and strong opposition to the United States' decision to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC). They reaffirmed their continued and firm support for the ICC's independence, impartiality and integrity.

The statement said they would stand united in supporting the ICC and were committed to constructive and inclusive dialogue with non-state parties ahead of the Assembly of States Parties meeting in December 2026.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on October 9 that Washington was sanctioning the ICC. The same day, after the US Treasury added the ICC to its sanctions list, the court said the US measures were aimed at interfering with its work and intimidating its cooperators, and that the ICC would not bow to US pressure.

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4. Ukraine Vows to Keep Striking Russian Refineries as Analysts Doubt Diesel Pledges

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine will continue long-range drone strikes on Russian oil refineries despite a commercial diesel agreement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the Financial Times reported. A senior Ukrainian official dismissed US calls to halt operations against Moscow's energy infrastructure, saying Kyiv "will burn [Russian] refineries" and would not adjust its asymmetric targeting strategy.

Energy market analysts question Moscow's physical ability to fulfil the commercial commitments announced by the White House. According to data cited by the Financial Times, Russian refineries are currently operating at approximately 60 percent of installed capacity due to operational halts, emergency repairs and equipment deficits resulting from Ukrainian strikes. "The biggest question for me is: where are they going to get the diesel from? Russia does not have an export problem. It has a refining problem," said Michelle Brouhard, head of policy and geopolitical risk at energy intelligence firm Kpler.

Trump announced on Truth Social that Moscow had agreed to supply more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel immediately, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons thereafter, and said deliveries could scale up to 3 million tons within a short timeframe. The US Treasury then issued a general license authorizing transactions involving Russian diesel through April 7, 2027, only three weeks after Trump signed a related sanctions law on September 18. Prior to 2025, Russia exported an average of 2.6 million metric tons of diesel per month by sea, but shipments fell sharply in 2026, and the Kremlin banned domestic diesel exports in July.

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5. Vance Says Microsoft Replaced Laid-Off Workers With Foreign Hires; Visa Data Tells a Fuller Story

Source: CNBC

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it suspended eight tech companies from sponsoring foreign workers for green cards, with Vice President JD Vance singling out Microsoft and claiming it replaced the 6,000 workers it laid off in 2025 with people on H-1B work visas. The suspension of the Labor Department's PERM program for green cards does not affect H-1Bs, which are temporary work permits, but H-1B approval data shows how heavily these companies rely on foreign workers.

Data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services' H-1B Employer Data Hub shows Amazon (19,178 approvals in fiscal 2025) and Meta (6,294) were the biggest sponsors, and neither was suspended. Microsoft was a close third with 6,258. The numbers cut both ways: Microsoft did receive more than 6,000 H-1B approvals last year, as Vance said, but 2 in 3 went to people already working there. Amazon, which brought in nearly four times as many H-1B workers new to the company, was not on the suspension list.

At the same news conference, the Labor Department's inspector general, Anthony D'Esposito, announced an investigation into alleged J-1 visa fraud involving nine major American universities.

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6. US Cookie Chain Crumbl Closes 57 Stores

Source: KSL News

Utah-based Crumbl is closing dozens of stores and laying off employees at its headquarters in Lindon after a bad batch of sales reports. The cookie company's sales in August were 70% lower this year than two years ago, according to Restaurant Business. Fifty-seven locations are shutting down as a result, with layoffs also reported at the headquarters.

Zions Bank senior economist Robert Spendlove believes Crumbl's downturn may be because people are cutting back on spending and buying fewer items they see as a luxury. "People just don't feel great about the economy," Spendlove said. "And a big reason for that is they're facing constant pressure of rising prices and higher inflation." He noted that Crumbl recently integrated dirty sodas, a costly endeavour, and said that in this type of economy companies should focus on core competencies.

Crumbl CEO Jason McGowan reportedly told franchise owners he takes responsibility for the downturn: "I'm the CEO and the buck stops with me. It's my fault where we are today." Despite the closures, Crumbl still has about 1,000 locations across the country.

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7. Pope Leo XIV to Have Lung Surgery After Nodule Found

Source: BBC

Pope Leo XIV has announced he will be operated on "in the coming days" after a nodule was found on his lung during a medical checkup. "The doctors found an early, well-localised nodule on my lung," he told the public during his weekly Sunday prayers in St Peter's Square in Rome. The 71-year-old pontiff said his medical team "believe it would be right to intervene" and that he had agreed to the operation.

Pope Leo reassured pilgrims that the mass was "well-contained" and caught "at an early stage." He concluded his Angelus prayer by thanking everyone for their "spiritual closeness" and said he entrusted himself to their prayers. Holy See Press Office spokesperson Matteo Bruni told the media that "the operation is scheduled for the first days of next week," adding that the Pope is expected to take about a week to recover. Vatican News said the operation will take place at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

Pope Leo, born Robert Francis Provost, succeeded Pope Francis in 2025. He is the 267th occupant of the throne of St Peter and the first American. Ordained in 1982, he spent years as a missionary in Peru, where he is remembered for working with marginalised communities.

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8. Migrant Boat Capsizes off Djibouti, Killing at Least 109

Source: Xinhua

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on October 11 that a migrant boat carrying 350 people capsized off the coast of Djibouti, killing at least 109 people, with more than 110 others missing, according to Xinhua. The accident occurred between the night of October 8 and the early hours of October 9 local time. The boat was travelling from Djibouti to Yemen when it capsized, and 15 children were among the 109 victims.

Alexandre Quassak, IOM's chief representative in Djibouti, described it as a heartbreaking accident and said, "Our teams are heading to the scene with local authorities to provide emergency assistance." IOM and Djiboutian authorities are still organising search and rescue operations and providing medical and food assistance to survivors.

In recent years, large numbers of migrants from countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea have crossed the Gulf of Aden between Djibouti and Yemen to seek work on the Arabian Peninsula.

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9. Cloudflare Acquires Deno to Improve Its Workers Programming Model

Source: TechCrunch

Cloudflare announced Friday that it is acquiring Deno, the startup behind the programming runtime of the same name. According to Cloudflare's Kenton Varda, principal engineer for Cloudflare Workers, Cloudflare will use the acquisition to improve its Workers programming model and platform, which allows customers to build and run software on Cloudflare's network.

Deno was co-founded by Bert Belder and Node.js creator Ryan Dahl. Deno recently launched celld, an open source implementation of Workers, which Varda wrote "delighted" the Cloudflare team. Varda argued that contrary to "a popular theory" that the company "made Cloudflare Workers work differently from other cloud platforms in order to create 'lock-in,'" the company believes "being open source and giving people an escape hatch is good business." Dahl wrote that his team is "joining Cloudflare to make the Workers programming model a mainstream way to build servers."

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Deno had raised a total of $26 million, including a Series A led by Sequoia.

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10. Lula Campaign Accuses Meta of Election Interference as Brazil's Top Electoral Court Steps In

Source: Guancha (citing AFP and CNN)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's campaign team accused US tech giant Meta on October 10 of interfering in Brazil's presidential election by limiting the reach of its social media content, according to AFP and CNN. Meta has denied the allegations.

A second round of Brazil's presidential election is set for October 25. Lula, seeking a fourth term, will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In the first round on October 4, Flavio led with about 47% of the vote, ahead of Lula at about 45%. In a statement on October 10, Lula's campaign said Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms were suspected of restricting the spread of Lula's campaign content, putting him at a disadvantage.

The statement noted that while Flavio's social media accounts have 17.2% fewer followers than Lula's, their average engagement is 2.96 times higher. It said the interference began as early as last December, when Lula's and several left-wing leaders' accounts "suddenly disappeared from Instagram's search system"; during this election, advertising accounts were suspended at one point, and view counts for some posts were interrupted; and on Friday (October 9), Lula's Instagram account was again barred from promoting already-published content. The campaign said Meta has attributed the problems to "technical glitches" each time, alleging its algorithm favours right-wing candidates. Lula's team has filed a complaint with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and reported Meta to the National Data Protection Authority (ANPD). The TSE then ordered Meta to respond within 48 hours, explaining the measures taken against Lula's official accounts and the anomalies in view data. Meta's Brazil office said the company complies with election rules and called the allegations "completely false and baseless," adding that many of the technical issues are not limited to Brazil or to specific accounts.

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