The most important world events of the past 24 hours
US midterms enter final weekend: early voting nears 50 million, DOJ steps up Alaska probe
🐱 Scout US anchor · US midterms enter final weekend
The US midterm campaign entered its final weekend with early voting approaching 50 million ballots, a record for a midterm cycle, while Donald Trump returns to the trail on Sunday in Kansas and Iowa after a cancelled-then-restored rally schedule. The Justice Department accelerated its criminal investigation in Alaska on Friday into allegations that aides to a Democratic Senate candidate recruited a retired schoolteacher with the same name as the Republican incumbent, and moved to block certification if the incumbent loses; it also wrote to election officials nationwide requiring ballot records be preserved for at least 22 months or face possible criminal penalties.
Background: The November 3 vote decides all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats, shaping Trump's final two years in office.
Saudi Arabia: coalition says more drones and missiles intercepted Saturday, including over oil-rich Eastern Region
🐱 Scout field reporter · Fresh drone and missile interceptions across Saudi Arabia
The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday its air defenses intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone over the oil-rich Eastern Region, followed by another drone aimed at the Southern Region, with reports putting the Friday-Saturday total at two missiles and three drones intercepted over Riyadh, Mecca and Medina. The Houthis continued to deny operations directed at Saudi territory, saying their strikes target only Saudi oil facilities and military bases, while Houthi missiles on Friday also hit Aden airport and the presidential palace complex. (Follow-up)
Background: Saturday's morning edition reported an interception over the Medina region and a US order for non-essential staff to leave Saudi Arabia; Saturday's Eastern Region and Riyadh claims extend the reported front to the oil heartland and the capital.
Oleshky: evacuees arrive in Belarus, convoy heads for Ukrainian-controlled territory
🐱 Scout rescue worker · Oleshky evacuees arrive in Belarus
Four planes carrying residents evacuated from the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Oleshky landed in Gomel, Belarus, on Saturday, and a bus convoy then set off toward the Ukrainian border, senior Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said, adding that all evacuees would reach Ukrainian territory within hours together with a Ukrainian delegation. The residents left Oleshky on Friday under a US-backed local ceasefire, travelling by bus via Crimea and the Russian town of Anapa before flying to Belarus, in the first joint humanitarian operation of its kind in nearly five years of war. (Follow-up)
Background: Saturday's morning edition reported the convoy splitting at Armiansk in Crimea and 527 people set to return to Ukrainian-controlled territory; Saturday's Belarus arrival is the next step in that journey.
Binance said on Friday afternoon its technical team is targeting a phased resumption of withdrawals within approximately 34 hours, subject to security checks, after setting aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the $6.3 billion theft. The company said $5 billion is already held in the exact tokens stolen, about 80% of the impacted amount, with the rest being bought on public markets and over the counter, and that an updated proof of reserves will be published by Monday, November 2. About $3 billion in stolen assets has been frozen on-chain, while deposits and other unaffected services remain operational. (Follow-up)
Background: Saturday's morning edition reported the $6.34 billion set-aside and additional breach points found by investigators; Friday afternoon's phased timetable and reserves date are the latest steps in the recovery.
Sources: Binance official statement, Forbes Africa (2 outlets)
Political developments and international relations
Trump in positive net approval in only 8 states, Emerson poll hits 37% low
The Civiqs state-by-state tracker shows Donald Trump's net approval positive in only eight of 50 states and negative in the other 42, including all six swing Senate battlegrounds, while an Emerson College poll on Friday put his approval at 37%, the lowest in its polling. Democrats led Republicans by 10 points on the generic congressional ballot in the same poll, even as Trump campaigns through the final weekend with no travel scheduled on Saturday.
Background: With days to go before the midterms, voters cite living costs and Iran-war-driven fuel prices as their top concerns.
Egypt's foreign minister: new escalation in Iran war would be more destructive
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Saturday at the IISS Manama Dialogue in Bahrain that he was "extremely worried" a new escalation in the US-Iran war would be "more dangerous, more destructive, and it will lead to nowhere." He noted that a June interim agreement failed to secure a lasting ceasefire or restore normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran has proposed lifting the US blockade of its ports in exchange for reopening the waterway within seven days, and Qatari mediators returned to Tehran on Friday with a revised proposal still divided over whether nuclear talks or sanctions relief should come first.
Background: The war, which began in February, continues to strain regional security as the US builds up forces in the Middle East and warns of possible post-election strikes.
Wall Street ends October with a rout: Nasdaq posts biggest one-day fall since June, over $2 trillion wiped out in the month
US stocks ended sharply lower on Friday, with the Nasdaq Composite falling 2.86% to 25,437.00, its biggest one-day percentage drop since June, the S&P 500 down 1.82% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 1.09%; Intel plunged about 29% and Nvidia and AMD fell about 4% and 11% respectively. The selloff followed disappointing results from Intel and Amazon, whose negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion over the past 12 months and unchanged $220 billion 2026 capex guidance deepened doubts over when massive AI infrastructure spending will pay off. (Follow-up)
Background: Saturday's morning edition reported the Nasdaq 100 losing more than $2 trillion in market value during October; Friday's closing figures confirm the month's rout.
China's October factory activity contracts at fastest pace in 3 months, PMI falls to 49.3
China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 49.3 in October from 50.1 in September, Reuters reported on Saturday, missing a 50.0 forecast and marking the fastest contraction in three months as soft demand, including for exports, weighed on manufacturers. A reading above 50 signals expansion and below 50 contraction, putting October back in contraction territory.
Background: The data landed a day after the Xi-Steinmeier meeting in Beijing, where Premier Li Qiang said China is willing to import more high-quality German products.
Virgin Media O2 to cut thousands of jobs, up to 4,000 roles at risk
Virgin Media O2, jointly owned by Liberty Global and Spain's Telefonica, will cut thousands of jobs in a sweeping shakeup, Sky News reported on Saturday via Reuters, with up to 4,000 of its 16,000 employees potentially affected, though the precise number has yet to be finalised. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment; its shareholders have previously sought about £600 million in cost reductions to address a debt pile of about £22 billion.
Background: UK telecoms operators face sustained cost and debt pressure, with Virgin Media O2's owners weighing options to lighten the balance sheet since July.
Tech companies, research breakthroughs and digital policy
OpenAI slashes funding target by $10 billion, valuation expectation falls to $1.25 trillion
OpenAI has cut the target for its latest funding round by $10 billion to about $20 billion, with its desired valuation dropping to $1.25 trillion from $1.4 trillion, the Financial Times reported on Friday via Reuters, and the "first close" is expected to raise less than $20 billion after some investors reduced allocations. A consortium of UAE investors including state-backed fund MGX is expected to be the largest participant, with OpenAI gaining an option to lease newly developed computing capacity in the region as part of the deal.
Background: Tech stocks are being routed over AI spending worries, with the Nasdaq posting its biggest one-day fall since June on Friday, and OpenAI is racing to close the round ahead of Anthropic's listing.
Sources: Reuters, Financial Times (via republication) (2 outlets)
Four AI giants back a shared robots.txt training signal for websites
OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic have agreed to honour a single shared machine-readable signal, `usage_ai-training`, in robots.txt, letting website publishers state once whether their content may be used for AI training instead of writing separate rules for every crawler. The signal comes from an IETF individual draft dated October 30, 2026, and remains a voluntary convention; OpenAI said it will implement it in the coming months, Microsoft is reported to start on February 1, 2027, and Google during 2027.
Background: The move follows a week of AI-training copyright battles, including a Wikimedia Foundation amicus brief filed on Friday.
Military developments, security situations and conflicts
Iran says US attacked fishing boats off Qeshm Island, leaving two missing and one wounded
Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, citing a Hormozgan province official, said on Saturday that the US attacked two fishing boats near Qeshm Island, leaving two fishermen missing and one wounded, Reuters reported; there was no immediate US confirmation of the attack. The incident comes as the US-Iran war continues and the US builds up forces in the Middle East, making small-scale friction around the Strait of Hormuz a fresh risk point. (single source, unverified)
Background: Egypt's foreign minister warned on the same day that a new escalation in the Iran war would be more destructive than the last.
Sources: Reuters (citing Iranian state broadcaster IRIB)
US approves sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 interceptors to Ukraine, funded by Europe, delivery possibly not until early 2030s
The US State Department approved on October 30 a possible foreign military sale to Ukraine of 500 Patriot PAC-3 MSE interceptors with spare parts and technical support, estimated at $2.1 billion, with no US funds involved: Canada, Germany and Norway will contribute through the JUMPSTART mechanism and Ukraine will cover the remainder with EU loan funds. Reuters, citing people briefed on the decision, reported the missiles have not yet been manufactured and may not arrive until the early 2030s, a timeline President Zelenskyy effectively confirmed by saying deliveries may begin only in a few years. (single source, unverified)
Background: On the same day Oleshky evacuees reached Belarus, US support for Ukraine is shifting toward an "approval plus European funding" model, with production queues deciding when interceptors actually arrive.
Taipei Pride draws over 170,000, mayor booed after gay bar raid
More than 170,000 people joined Taipei's annual Pride parade on Saturday, East Asia's largest, Reuters reported, while Mayor Chiang Wan-an, in a close re-election race, was met with shouts and boos during a brief 15-minute appearance at the end of the parade. Organisers revised this year's theme after police raided the Commander D bar in the Ximen gay neighbourhood earlier this month, taking 51 people in for questioning and arresting the owner, an episode organisers said reawakened historical trauma for gender-diverse communities.
Background: Taiwan legalised same-sex marriage in 2019, the first in Asia, and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim led the ruling DPP delegation at the parade.
Gaza death toll since ceasefire reaches 1,574, UNICEF says 351 children killed
Gaza's Health Ministry said on Friday that 1,574 Palestinians have been killed and 5,687 injured since the October 2025 ceasefire took effect, while UNICEF reported that 351 of the dead were children and demanded transparent investigations into child fatalities. Israeli shelling and gunfire continued into Saturday across Gaza, and the ministry said 21,468 patients and wounded people still await medical treatment abroad.
Background: The ceasefire has held for a year, but its second phase — reconstruction, governance arrangements and further Israeli troop withdrawals — remains deadlocked over Hamas disarmament.
Sources: Gaza Health Ministry, UNICEF (via republication) (2 outlets)
China-related news (international media coverage only)
China willing to import more German goods, Premier Li tells Steinmeier
China is willing to import more high-quality German products, Premier Li Qiang told visiting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday, Reuters reported, as the two countries seek to shore up trade ties amid rising protectionism between Europe and Beijing. Li urged the two sides to use intergovernmental consultation mechanisms to expand cooperation in autos, chemicals, artificial intelligence, digital and green industries, and to firmly uphold free trade and open cooperation.
Background: Steinmeier's five-day visit to China runs through October 31, following his Friday meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
China opposes US FCC ban on Chinese lab testing, vows countermeasures if US presses ahead
China firmly opposes the US Federal Communications Commission's vote to bar all Chinese labs from testing electronic devices for use in the US, its commerce ministry said on Friday, warning it would take necessary countermeasures "if the US side persists in acting unilaterally." China had proposed negotiating a bilateral mutual-recognition agreement, but said the US attitude had been "extremely passive and negative"; the FCC prohibitions are slated to take effect in December 2028, with Chair Brendan Carr noting 82% of electronics were tested in China in 2025.
Background: The FCC vote on Thursday expanded an earlier action targeting Beijing, marking a fresh step in US-China technology decoupling.
