October 2026

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been re-elected president of Brazil, and celebrations broke out in the country's streets. The president-elect will have to govern with a Congress dominated by the centre-right, which won the legislative elections in the first round, and he has promised to take that into account.

Israelis voted to renew the Knesset in the first election held since 7 October. Polls put the contest between Benjamin Netanyahu and Eisenkot without a clear winner, and the war weighed on the campaign even as it drew little discussion on the trail.

Christine Lagarde will step down as president of the European Central Bank on 7 February 2027, leaving the post early. The announcement was made by European Council President Costa.

Two trains collided on the high-speed line at Toledo in Spain, killing at least 68 people. Italy's foreign ministry said five Italians were on board: four are safe and one woman is missing.

An Italian CH 47 Chinook helicopter deployed under the Eufor Althea operation crashed in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday afternoon. Two Italian army soldiers and two Italian Red Cross operators died in the crash, and 11 injured people are not in life-threatening condition.

Italy's government approved a decree allocating 105 million euros to truck drivers hit by high diesel prices, with 60 million euros for farmers and 10 million euros for fishermen. The package responds to a road haulage protest over fuel costs and delayed aid that has blocked roads across the country.

A third strong earthquake struck Sicily on 23 October, with a magnitude of 5.5, part of a seismic sequence in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea recorded by INGVterremoti. The quake hit western Sicily, and Palermo's mayor signed an ordinance to evacuate public buildings.

The government approved a security decree in response to weekend unrest. The measures include preventive detention and a new crime of violence in public squares, and they lower the age of criminal liability to 14.

More than 4 million bookings for specialist visits and diagnostic tests in Italy went past the maximum waiting times set for 2026, the figure reported across Italian outlets on Thursday. The backlog is described as the weak point of the health service, with visits and exams proving harder to book than they should be.

Milan's prefecture hosted a security summit after clashes in the city, with Mayor Giuseppe Sala calling Saturday a delicate day and saying he is not opposed to the arrival of soldiers. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi described what happened as something never seen in the world.