World, in brief

Police arrested five men near RAF Fairford, an air base in southwest England, in the early hours of Sunday. [1][2] They are held on suspicion of explosives offences and of preparing a terrorist act. [1]

Police got a call at 00:45 about three suspicious vehicles heading towards the base. [1][3] A local woman had seen three vans block a road, and a group of men in hoods and balaclavas. [2][4]

Another villager said the woman first rang the base's own police, but the phone just rang out, so she dialled 999, Britain's emergency number. [2]

Army bomb experts examined three white vans on a country road near Whelford, a nearby village. [2][5] Aerial footage showed a bomb-disposal robot moving around them, two with their back doors open. [2]

Police put a 400m cordon around the vans and moved 85 households out of Whelford in the night. [1][2] Some residents were still in their pyjamas at a leisure centre hours later. [1]

An image the BBC located, but whose source it could not verify, appears to show the men held about 350m from a runway gate. [1]

RAF Fairford is used mainly by US heavy bombers, and a US Air Force unit, the 501st Combat Support Wing, runs operations there. [6] After the US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February, Britain let the US use it to strike Iranian missile sites. [7][8]

In July, Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned Britain not to let US bombers fly from Fairford. [9][10] 'Any base that is used to invade Iran's territory is our legitimate goal,' their statement said. [10]

Police have not named the men or said what they planned. [1][4] Britain's defence secretary, Wes Streeting, said it would be 'irresponsible to speculate' about any link to Iran. [2]

Trump said the men were 'looking to do big damage', and that the US 'had them under view for a long time'. [1][2] The BBC understands the arrests were not intelligence-led. [6]

Counter-terrorism police now lead the investigation. [1][2] Andy Burnham, Britain's new prime minister, was kept updated while at his Labour Party's conference in Liverpool. [2]

The BBC's security correspondent pointed to a string of sabotage attempts in Europe blamed on Russia's military intelligence, most recently three explosive drones found at Leipzig-Halle airport in Germany. [6] Russia denies mounting such attacks. [9]

Why it matters. Watch whether police charge the five men, who have not been named, and whether they say what the vans held and who, if anyone, sent them. [1][4]

Eight gunmen with assault rifles and pistols stormed a tavern in Wedela, a township southwest of Johannesburg surrounded by mining land, on Saturday evening. [14][23] They killed 17 people and wounded 15, then set fire to two cars and fled. [14] Hours later, gunmen killed 10 people at a barbecue venue in a township outside Cape Town. [14] Police say one line of inquiry in Wedela is a turf war over illegal gold mining, and they have launched a manhunt. [14][24]

Why it matters. South Africa records about 60 murders a day, among the highest rates in the world. [14] President Cyril Ramaphosa, who sent soldiers to crime hotspots in Johannesburg in March, said security forces would keep 'pulling out all stops'. [14]

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Sunday that Iran will wait for the mediators to pass on the US government's final view before it decides anything. [25][26] Trump had told reporters on Saturday that he was rejecting Iran's plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. [25] Araghchi said Trump makes many contradictory statements. [25] Iran's army said it is fully prepared if the US attacks again. [11] Oil rose more than 1% early on Monday, to about $106 a barrel. [27]

Why it matters. The strait usually carries about a fifth of the world's oil and gas, and it has been effectively closed since the war began in February. [25] Analysts told Al Jazeera that Trump is betting the US naval blockade will squeeze Iran into offering more. [26]

Russian strikes killed eight people across Ukraine on Sunday, officials said. [28] In Sumy, a northern city, bombs hit near a centre for children and families. [28][15] Ukraine's interior minister said three died there, including a 16-year-old girl; the regional governor had earlier counted two. [28][15] Zelensky said Russia had used 277 attack drones since Saturday, 155 of them the jet-powered kind that flies higher and is harder to shoot down. [15] Russia said it hit two data centres in Kyiv. [28]

Why it matters. Zelensky said Russia fired about 3,900 drones, bombs and missiles in the past week, and Ukraine accuses it of aiming at civilians as winter nears. [28] He said the targets in Kyiv included a building where Saudi Arabia's ambassador lives. [15]

Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia's president, resigned on Sunday, months before his second and last term was due to end next year. [29][20] Serbia's constitution bars him from a third term as president. [20] He plans to lead his Progressive Party into a snap parliamentary election in late October, which could make him prime minister. [20] A presidential election must now follow within three months. [20] Ana Brnabic, the speaker of parliament, becomes interim president. [20]

Why it matters. Protests began in 2024 after the roof of Novi Sad's railway station fell in and killed 16 people, and they went on through this summer. [20] On his way out, Vucic pardoned 49 people, including 23 students. [20]

A drone hit the headquarters of Tigrai TV, the main broadcaster of Ethiopia's Tigray region, in the city of Mekelle early on Sunday. [30][31] The station, which has about 400 staff, went off air. [30] A humanitarian source said Tigrayan forces took Erebti, a town in the Afar region near Tigray's border, the same day. [31] Ethiopia's army reportedly retook Sekota, a strategic town, from Tigrayan forces. [32] About 20 Israelis are stranded in Lalibela, where flights are cancelled. [31]

Why it matters. At least 150,000 people have fled their homes in Afar, the same source estimated. [31] Tigray's push into Afar is aimed at the supply route from Djibouti, which handles almost all of Ethiopia's trade, including fuel, the Times of Israel reports. [31]

Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, the head of Ethiopia's army, accused Egypt and Sudan of backing an alliance of seven armed groups that wants to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. [33] He said the groups could not succeed unless they were 'pushed, supported and supplied' from abroad. [33] He also accused Eritrea of funding them. [34] He gave no evidence, and Egypt and Sudan had not replied by Sunday morning. [33] He said the army is answering Tigray with 'wisdom and restraint'. [34]

Why it matters. Egypt gets more than 90% of its fresh water from the Nile, and it has quarrelled with Ethiopia for years over a huge dam Ethiopia built on the Blue Nile. [33] Alemayehu Weldemariam, a law professor at Indiana University, told Al Jazeera that Ethiopia's own government did most to undermine the 2022 peace deal. [34]

South Korea's presidential office demanded an official explanation and an apology from Ukraine on Monday. [35] Last week Zelensky told the UN that Ukraine had handed two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea. [17] South Korea says the two governments had agreed to keep the handover secret, to protect the men from danger. [36] A source in Ukraine's presidential office denied there was any such agreement, and South Korea called that false. [36][17] Ukraine captured the pair in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025. [17]

Why it matters. South Korea is backing efforts to restart talks with North Korea, and Trump says he is willing to talk to North Korea again. [17] North Korea has sent 14,000 to 15,000 soldiers to support Russia since 2024, South Korean intelligence estimates. [36]

Yoav Gallant was Israel's defence minister when Hamas attacked on 7 October 2023. [37] On Sunday he said he first learned from recent media reports of warnings the UAE and Egypt reportedly gave Israel beforehand. [18] If they were kept from defence officials, it would be a 'grave failure', he said. [18] He said Hamas's only message to Israel's Shin Bet security service was that its leader would 'cause the prisons to quake', which officials read as a hint about a prisoner swap. [37] Netanyahu's office denies both warnings were delivered. [38]

Why it matters. The row is back at the centre of Israel's election campaign, Haaretz reports. [38] On Sunday Netanyahu secretly visited the UAE and met its president, Mohamed bin Zayed, a source told Haaretz. [19]

The Houthi-run health ministry in Yemen said a strike near a market in Taiz province killed seven people and wounded 40, including children, on Sunday. [16] The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia's air force. [13] Yemen's Saudi-backed government said its own planes hit a Houthi military camp and vehicles near the market. [16][13] The Houthis, who hold much of northern Yemen, seized the country's whole Red Sea coast this month. [13]

Why it matters. The new fighting has driven at least 125,000 people from their homes, DW reports. [13] The Houthis have also declared a blockade of Saudi oil exports, timed with Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. [13]

Yemen's government forces said they took several areas and high ground in southern Taiz province, including Jabal Bazel, a mountaintop within range of Houthi supply lines. [12] Taiz is Yemen's third-biggest city, home to close to a million people, and Yemen's government holds its centre. [39] The Houthis took the Red Sea port of Mokha, 85km to the west, on 10 September, after a truce that had mostly held for four years fell apart. [39]

Why it matters. If the Houthis win the high ground west of the city, retaking Mokha gets much harder for Yemen's government, the BBC reports. [39] A farmer near the front, Ali, told the BBC he sent his children to a camp but stayed with his goats, because without them the family would go hungry. [39]

Israel's army and Shin Bet said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed Saher Nidal Saqr in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. [40][41] They said he kidnapped Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023. [40] Argamani was rescued in 2024, and Or was freed last year. [41] Gaza's health ministry says 74,016 Palestinians have been killed in the war, 1,145 of them since the ceasefire began last October. [42]

Why it matters. Israel keeps striking in Gaza, saying it answers threats, and seven Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire. [42] Israeli forces hold more than half of Gaza, Hamas has not disarmed, and rebuilding has not begun. [42]

Heavy rain and storms set off floods and landslides across parts of India and Nepal over the weekend. [43] India's Uttar Pradesh state counted 15 dead in 48 hours on Saturday, after 19 times its normal rainfall fell in a day. [43] By Sunday Reuters put the toll at 56 in India and 14 in Nepal, with 11 missing. [44] In Nepal's Baglung district, a landslide buried a family's house while they slept, killing three children and a woman. [43]

Why it matters. Nepal warned of possible flash floods in 49 of its 77 districts as rivers kept rising. [43] Last month's floods there killed more than 1,450 people and left thousands missing. [43]

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said their navy captured a US underwater drone on a spying mission in the Strait of Hormuz. [45] They said it was a REMUS 600, a light robot submarine used for surveillance, mapping the seabed and finding mines, and that experts were reading its data. [45] US Central Command, which directs US military operations in the Middle East, said the US has 'positive control' of all its drones. [45] It is Iran's second such claim since Tuesday. [45]

Why it matters. Iran's army chief, Amir Hatami, said on Sunday that the war 'is not over'. [45] He said Iran will not let its enemies use the strait while Iran itself cannot trade. [11]

Venezuela freed a significant number of political prisoners from several jails early on Saturday, the rights group Foro Penal said. [46] It came days after Delcy Rodriguez, the interim president, met Trump in New York. [46] Among those freed was Wilder Vasquez, sentenced in 2018 over claims he plotted to kill Nicolas Maduro. [46] Rodriguez, Maduro's former vice-president, has run Venezuela since a US military operation removed Maduro in January. [21][46]

Why it matters. Foro Penal says an earlier release scheme ended with less than half of Venezuela's political prisoners freed. [46] Rodriguez's government still denies that anyone is jailed for politics. [46]

Afghanistan's defence ministry said on Sunday its forces killed 28 fighters and wounded 32 in Nuristan, an eastern province, after they crossed from Pakistan. [47] It said the group included Islamic State militants, and that most were former Afghan government security forces. [47] It accused Pakistani militias of backing them. [47] Pakistan's military and information ministry did not immediately answer Reuters. [47]

Why it matters. If Afghanistan's defence ministry is right, men who served Afghanistan's former government are now fighting its current rulers from across the Pakistani border. [47]

With the US Navy blockading its southern ports, Iran is moving more trade through its ports on the Caspian Sea, which it shares with Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. [48] The northern ports' share of essential goods, such as food, has risen from 18% before the war to 30%. [48] But the Caspian's water level is falling, and Iran's northern ports now take only 4,000-tonne ships, down from 6,000. [48] At the border crossing with Armenia, up to 1,800 trucks queue for days. [48]

Why it matters. One ship in the south can carry as much as 20 ships on the Caspian, the head of Iran's ports agency said. [48] Container arrivals at the Caspian ports rose 50% on a year earlier in the five months to 22 August, a provincial governor said. [48]

An avalanche hit a base camp below Himlung Himal, a 7,126m peak on Nepal's border with Tibet, on Sunday morning. [49] At least 10 Nepali climbers are missing. [49][43] They had gone ahead to set up the camp and fix ropes for foreign climbers, who were not there yet. [49][43] Bad weather has kept rescue helicopters and teams from reaching the site. [49]

Why it matters. Avalanche danger also forced climbers off Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest mountain, earlier this week. [49] Less than two months ago, six climbers died on Broad Peak in Pakistan, including the British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja. [49]

A poll for the Israeli TV channel Kan 11 came out on Sunday. [22] It gave 52 seats each to the bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief, and the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [22] Eisenkot's Yashar party is on 23 seats and Netanyahu's Likud on 21. [22] Arab parties would win 12 and Yoaz Hendel's party four, outside both blocs. [22] The poll asked 552 people and has a margin of error of 4.2%. [22]

Why it matters. On these numbers neither bloc has half of the 120 seats, so the 16 seats outside both blocs matter. [22] The poll came as the row over the 7 October warnings returned to the campaign. [38]

Chen Ming-chi, Taiwan's deputy foreign minister, said on Sunday the US 'very much' understands Taiwan's defence needs, after last week's summit between Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping. [50] Trump has kept a new package of arms sales to Taiwan on hold since he met Xi in Beijing in May. [50] David Perdue, the US ambassador to China, said Trump has not changed his Taiwan policy. [50] Taiwan's government rejects China's claim to the island. [50]

Why it matters. US law requires the US to give Taiwan the means to defend itself, and China wants the arms sales to stop. [50] On Saturday Trump said only that Xi understands his position on Taiwan. [50]

Supporters of Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's opposition leader, rode motorbikes and drove through Caracas on Sunday to demand her safe return and a presidential election. [21] Similar marches were held in Valencia, Maracaibo and Merida. [21] Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, has lived in exile for nine months. [21] Her party says she has tried and failed to return seven times this year, three of them on Monday night. [21]

Why it matters. Rodriguez told the UN there 'will be elections in Venezuela', but gave no date. [46] US officials deny holding Machado back, but say they have sometimes advised her not to return for her safety. [21]

Police arrested more than 50 people outside the Labour Party's conference in Liverpool on Sunday, at a protest backing Palestine Action. [51] Britain banned the group under its terrorism law in July 2025. [51] Officers arrested protesters holding signs, on suspicion of showing support for a banned organisation. [51] Amnesty International called the arrests a 'shameful attack on freedom of speech'. [51]

Why it matters. Britain's Supreme Court has agreed to hear the group's appeal against the ban, which Britain's government says it will fight. [51] Britain's Home Office says the ban is about significant criminal damage to businesses, not about protest for Palestinian causes. [51]

Crime dominates Brazil's presidential race, AP reports. [52] Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, promises to loosen organised crime's grip, above all in Rio de Janeiro. [52] Polls suggest his hard line is popular after Rio's deadliest police raid, last year, killed more than 120 people. [52] President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants Brazil's federal government to play a bigger part against gangs. [52]

Why it matters. In Rio's favelas, residents are trying their own answers: former traffickers run a podcast with 225,000 followers on Instagram, and a free martial arts school has room for 600. [52] Many residents say police shootouts with the gangs cost many lives and achieve little. [52]