October 2026

Serbia's student movement won the country's parliamentary elections, and outgoing president Aleksandar Vucic acknowledged defeat. The result was described as a surprise outcome in which students drove out an ex-president accused of corruption.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won Brazil's presidential election and remains president, a result described as a historic turnaround. Outlets reported the outcome on Monday, with the race called for Lula.

A US envoy has hinted that Washington could strike Iran as soon as this weekend, and Middle East capitals are preparing for new attacks while President Donald Trump sharpens his war rhetoric. A large-scale attack on Iran is being planned after the midterm elections, with the "mother of all bombs" reported to be under consideration.

Spain's prime minister declared three days of national mourning after a high-speed train crash, as the death toll rose to 68. The crash left carriages completely destroyed, and a survivor described seeing wrecked wagons.

The Dutch public prosecution service is prosecuting seven police officers over the death of a 32-year-old man held in custody in Rotterdam in 2023. The man is named as Mateusz in one report. NRC describes the case as unprecedented: seven officers facing a criminal court over a fatal arrest.

A book excerpt states that the Dutch military intelligence service MIVD monitored the phone of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and saw that he received millions of dollars from Gulf states. Dutch spies were able to look at the iPhone thanks to a Russian, according to the account.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a complete closure of the West Bank after a deadly shooting attack on Israeli soldiers, his office and Israeli media reported. The order covers the occupied territory in full, and Israeli outlets described it as a "complete sealing off" of the West Bank.

Serbian students who have spent two years marching hundreds of kilometres across the country in protest against corruption are now trying to defeat the government at the ballot box. They are convinced they can beat the administration, and a pro-European student party is heading toward victory in the Serbian elections.

France will deploy 70,000 police officers on Friday ahead of announced new protests, after riots that have already led to more than two hundred rioters being jailed. President Emmanuel Macron has banned all protests not organised by trade unions and lashed out at what he called "extreme-left groups".

Websites including those of RIVM and ANWB have gone offline because of a vulnerability in PHP, and the number of affected sites kept rising through the week. Hosters of Yourhosting still had many websites offline because of the PHP bug.