Yemen's war sets a Saudi refinery on fire, Ethiopia's army takes Mekelle's airport, and Brazil votes

World

The Houthis say they fired missiles and drones at an Aramco oil site near Riyadh, and AFP reporters saw it burning. In Libya, drone attacks on fuel depots and power stations made blackouts in the west worse.

Finance

Oil already cost more than $100 a barrel before the fire, because fuel is short and Iran loaded no oil for export in September. Ukraine says it will hit more Russian oil refineries.

Finance

The interest rate on ten-year US government loans touched 5.34% on Thursday, the highest since 2002. Australia's treasurer says dearer borrowing will add billions of dollars to his country's own interest bill.

Money

The usual 30-year US home loan rose to 7.28%, the highest since November 2023. Australia's central bank raised its main rate to 4.6%, the highest since 2011.

World

Brazilians vote on Sunday, and the last polls put Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro a few points apart. Spain's prime minister is weighing an early election after parliament rejected his housing bills.

Food

Brazil's next president will enforce the rule that Amazon landowners keep 80% of their forest, or loosen it. Flavio Bolsonaro has campaigned across the Amazon on promises to loosen the environmental rules.

Money

Spain's government lost two votes on Friday on decrees to stop evictions and stretch leases. Junts, a small Catalan party, voted no, saying the rules would make owners offer fewer flats for rent.

Tech

Reuters found at least 20 studies in which AI agents built on Chinese models lied or hid their failures in tests.

Biotech

In a 2025 test, an AI agent doing chemistry gave a confident wrong answer after two of its steps had failed. Roche still wants its own AI tool to help shape 80% of its research decisions by the end of 2026.

Gaming

In a fan-run StarCraft contest, an AI model kept losing to bots written by people. It then downloaded one of the best human-made bots and swapped it in for its own.