World, in brief

A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv dived over Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after one pilot stabbed the other, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. [1][5]

Flydubai is a budget airline owned by Dubai's government, and 169 of the 172 passengers were Israeli. [10][4]

The plane fell about 14,000 feet in 30 seconds, according to a flight-tracking playback reported by Reuters. [2]

Cockpit doors stay locked during flights, a rule airlines adopted after the attacks of 11 September 2001. [7] The wounded captain, Smit Machchhar from Mumbai, unlocked it from the floor. [3]

Passengers then rushed into the cockpit and held down the co-pilot, who was hitting the controls, a spokesperson for Netanyahu said. [2]

Two off-duty flydubai pilots who were on board landed the plane at Tabuk, in north-west Saudi Arabia. [3][1]

Saudi Arabia arrested the co-pilot, Netanyahu said. [4] Machchhar is stable after surgery in a Tabuk hospital, India's embassy says. [3]

An Israeli official named the co-pilot as a citizen of Oman. [10][3] That has not been independently confirmed, and authorities in Dubai have given no motive. [10][4]

Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, called it a jihadist terror attack. [12] Flydubai said the reasons were unknown and asked everyone not to guess. [5]

Aviation experts were surprised the plane did not crash, because the dive tore off most of the rudder on its tail, AP reports. [7]

Israel will now check the identity of every pilot flying into the country, the prime minister's office says. [4]

Within hours it became an election fight. Netanyahu's allies said it proved his warnings of pre-election attacks, and opposition leader Yair Lapid said nothing like it came up in his briefing. [8]

Why it matters. Watch whether Saudi or Emirati investigators name the co-pilot and give a motive before Israelis vote on 27 October. [3][8]

Russia fired nearly 190 drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, mostly at power plants around Kyiv, the capital. [16] At least seven people were killed, including a child, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. [14] Ukrenergo, the state grid company, ordered emergency power cuts in Kyiv and three nearby regions, the first in the capital since spring. [14] Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said the energy system had been hit almost every day since summer, but never this hard since last winter ended. [15]

Why it matters. Last winter Russian strikes cut light and heating when temperatures fell to -20C, and Ukraine's weather service expects the first night frosts from Thursday. [17] Trams stopped and water pressure fell in Kyiv on Wednesday. [14]

Ukraine faces a $27 billion gap in defence funding this year, Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi told journalists. [19] Ukraine's government hopes to raise about $7 billion at home and is asking foreign partners for the rest. [19] Some European Union money will only come once Ukraine passes reforms the EU has asked for. [19] Ukraine's government is delaying other spending and considering higher taxes, because it needs cash now to order next year's drones and ammunition. [19]

Why it matters. Soldiers' pay, pensions and the salaries of teachers and doctors come first, Koretskyi said. [19] After the grid attack, Zelensky asked allies again for air-defence missiles, saying Ukraine needs more as winter nears. [19]

Ukraine will hand the Trump administration and the US Congress a list of Russian companies, ships and people it wants punished, a senior Ukrainian diplomat told AP. [20] The list uses a new US law named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, which Trump signed on 18 September. [20] At the top are firms making parts for Russia's own version of Starlink, a satellite internet network. [20] The US government must decide by 18 October whom, if anyone, it will sanction. [20]

Why it matters. Ukraine says a working Russian satellite network would let Russia aim attacks with live information this winter. [20] It also wants tougher action on the old tankers Russia uses to sell oil around sanctions. [20]

A doctor at Alamata General Hospital told the BBC that 52 civilians were killed in fighting in and around the town between Saturday and Monday. [21] Alamata is in the south of Tigray, the northern Ethiopian region whose ruling party, the TPLF, has been fighting the national army since last week. [21] Twelve people died in one strike on the town's market, the doctor said. [21] Videos online show army tanks in Alamata's streets, and government troops appear to be pushing north towards Mekelle, Tigray's main city. [21]

Why it matters. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) says more than 700 wounded people reached hospitals it supports in Tigray in a few days. [21] Banks, phones and the internet are cut, so people who fled into Alamata cannot get money. [21]

Iraq's cabinet voted for a law that would make the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) a permanent part of the state, and sent it to Iraq's parliament. [22] The PMF is a group of mostly Shia Muslim armed groups formed in 2014 to fight Islamic State, and several of its factions are backed by Iran. [22] The law would give its fighters benefits equal to the regular army's. [22] It came as the US formally ended its military mission in Iraq after 23 years. [22]

Why it matters. The US government says the bill entrenches Iran's influence, and it blacklisted senior PMF leaders between 2019 and 2021. [22] An Iraqi official told The National the law would create a second armed force inside the Iraqi state. [22]

Israeli strikes killed at least seven people in Gaza on Wednesday, Gaza's health officials said. [23] A strike on a minibus of civilians in Gaza City killed at least four, medics said, and Gaza's civil defence agency put it at five. [23][24] Another killed a woman in a Gaza City flat; Israel's army said it was aiming at a Hamas fighter planning attacks. [23] A journalist, Mohammad Al-Najar, was killed near a mosque in Khan Younis. [23]

Why it matters. Gaza officials say 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the US-brokered ceasefire began last year, and Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed. [24] Gaza's government media office says only 35% of the aid and rebuilding trucks agreed in the ceasefire have been let in, with winter coming. [24]

Isaac Herzog, Israel's president, planned to visit the army's West Bank headquarters near Beit El on Wednesday and speak about attacks by Israeli settlers, his office said. [25] The day before, he called a settler riot in the Palestinian village of Jalud 'a moral stain' and told the authorities to act decisively. [25] Settlers there burned property, fought soldiers and stopped a Palestinian family going back to their home. [25] On Wednesday dozens of settlers raided Awarta, near Nablus, under army protection, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. [24]

Why it matters. Herzog called the violence an attack on the rule of law, which puts the question to the police and the army who are meant to stop it. [25]

Lebanon's army first said an Israeli drone strike on an army vehicle had wounded a soldier and three civilians in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, a southern town. [26] Hours later it said an unknown object had exploded instead, while soldiers were taking residents to check their homes. [27] Israel keeps striking what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire, and the town has been hit several times in recent weeks. [26]

Why it matters. The army changed its account after what it called an engineering inspection of the site. [27] Israel's military had not commented on the first claim. [26]

An adviser to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan's army, told Reuters that a US ceasefire plan could split Sudan the way Libya is split. [28] The plan, from US envoy Massad Boulos, starts with a 90-day ceasefire in the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia, which began in April 2023. [28] The adviser said it leaves the RSF a place in Sudan's future. [28] The RSF has been setting up its own government in Nyala, in Darfur. [28]

Why it matters. Libya has had two rival governments, in the east and the west, for more than a decade. [28] The US has accused the RSF of genocide and the army of war crimes, including using chemical weapons. [28]

The US State Department took Syria off its list of countries refused American weapons, from Thursday. [29] Syria's requests will now be judged one at a time. [29] Its interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former rebel leader, overthrew Bashar al-Assad nearly two years ago, and the US has been lifting sanctions on his government since. [29] Seven countries remain on the list: Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea and Venezuela. [29]

Why it matters. With US troops gone from Iraq, Syria's government may play a bigger part in stopping Islamic State coming back, AP reports. [29] The US also plans to reopen its embassy in Damascus, closed for 14 years. [29]

Afghanistan's Taliban government said its forces killed 41 fighters and captured 62 in Nuristan province between Sunday and Tuesday. [30] It said they crossed from Pakistan with Pakistan's support, and that some belonged to Islamic State. [30] Pakistan has rejected such claims before, and none of them can be independently checked. [30] Afghanistan's foreign ministry called in Pakistan's top diplomat in Kabul to protest. [30]

Why it matters. The UN mission in Afghanistan has counted more than 1,100 civilians killed or hurt by cross-border violence this year. [30] Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban, which carries out attacks inside Pakistan. [30]

Romania's parliament refused to back Siegfried Muresan, a pro-European member of the European Parliament, as prime minister on Wednesday. [31] He won 182 votes, short of the 233 he needed. [31] He was the third person named for the job since the governing coalition collapsed in May. [31] President Nicusor Dan says he will name another candidate on Monday to avoid an early election. [31]

Why it matters. The far-right AUR party, about a third of parliament, wants early elections and threatens to impeach President Dan if he does not call one once the rules allow it. [31] Romania has the European Union's highest public deficit and inflation, and an analyst says forming a government after a snap vote would take four months. [31]

Protests by high school students over crowded classes, missing teachers and run-down buildings have spread across France. [32] About 400 of France's 3,700 lycees, the schools for 15- to 18-year-olds, have been hit, the education ministry says. [32] Education Minister Edouard Geffray said 119 students and staff, mostly head teachers and teachers, had been hurt since the protests began. [33] Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 440 people had been detained. [32]

Why it matters. The protests overlap with a public sector strike over the French government's budget plans, a year before France elects a new president. [32] Students say heatwaves in June showed how badly their school buildings are insulated. [32]

Emmanuel Macron, France's president, plans to send soldiers and air-defence systems to Saudi Arabia after missile and drone attacks by Yemen's Houthis, a group aligned with Iran. [34] The Houthis hit Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and oil sites at Yanbu. [34] Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader and favourite to be France's next president, said France has no defence pact with Saudi Arabia. [34] The left-wing France Unbowed party wants France's parliament to debate it. [34]

Why it matters. Britain has already agreed to refuel Saudi fighter jets in the air. [34] France Unbowed warns the troops could make France a party to the war. [34]

Donald Trump planned to announce on Wednesday that South Korea will put about $54 billion into a project to send natural gas from Alaska to Asia, and into other US projects, Trump's office confirmed. [35][36] The money comes out of $350 billion South Korea promised in a 2025 trade deal, in return for lower US tariffs on its cars. [35] The project is an 807-mile pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to an export terminal on the south coast. [35] Its cost and financing have been in doubt for years. [36]

Why it matters. Alaska's Republican senator Dan Sullivan, a long-time backer of the project, faces a close race against Democrat Mary Peltola, with the vote less than five weeks away. [35] Kim Sung-won, who chairs the South Korean parliament's trade committee, said the business case should have been checked before putting such a burden on the public. [36]

The US Senate left for the midterm elections without voting on a bill to permanently ban cars, software and parts linked to China, Russia or North Korea. [37] Nearly every senator was ready to back it, Slotkin said, but Republican Rand Paul objected that it could catch Mercedes-Benz, which is almost 20% owned by Chinese investors. [37][38] The bill bars carmakers more than 15% owned by Chinese companies. [38] Its sponsors, Bernie Moreno and Elissa Slotkin, say they will try again in November. [38]

Why it matters. A rule from the Biden administration already keeps Chinese carmakers out of the US, and the senators want a law that is harder to undo. [37] Trump said this month he would accept Chinese companies building cars in the US. [38]

US senators from both parties said on Wednesday they had agreed a bill to speed up permits for big energy and building projects. [39] Talks stopped in December, when Trump paused five nearly finished wind farms off the US east coast. [39] They restarted after Trump told Democrats that wind and solar projects would be treated better. [39] The vote will not come until after the 3 November midterm elections, and the US House of Representatives has not passed it. [39]

Why it matters. Republican Senator Mike Lee said the aim is to make it easier to build things in the US. [39] Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse said the fair treatment of wind and solar projects is still unresolved. [39]

Senate Republicans put a bill on data centres, the huge buildings full of computers that run AI and the internet, up for one of the last votes before the midterms. [40] It asks power regulators to consider charging very large users the cost of the grid upgrades they need. [40] It passed the US House of Representatives by 417 votes to 3. [40] Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it a fraud because the charge is optional, and Democrats want it made compulsory. [40]

Why it matters. Its sponsor, Ohio Senator Jon Husted, is in a tough race against Sherrod Brown, who calls him the 'face of data centers'. [40] Voters worried about energy bills have made data centres a campaign issue. [40]

John Moolenaar, the Republican who chairs the US House committee on China, asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to watch South Korea's warming ties with China. [41] His letter pointed to chip factories that Samsung and SK Hynix run in China. [41] It also said South Korea treats Chinese online shops such as Temu more gently than the American firm Coupang. [41] South Korea's foreign ministry said it treats all companies fairly and called the alliance with the US the cornerstone of its policy. [41]

Why it matters. Moolenaar wants a State Department briefing on South Korea and China by 31 October. [41] The letter was sent the day before Trump's office confirmed South Korea's $54 billion for Alaska. [41][35]

South Korea's intelligence service told lawmakers that Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, probably revealed a secret transfer of North Korean prisoners of war to build South Korean support for more help to Ukraine. [42] He disclosed it in his UN speech last week. [42] South Korea says that broke a secrecy agreement, and Ukraine denies there was one. [42] The soldiers, captured fighting for Russia, reached South Korea in mid-September and have no major health problems. [42]

Why it matters. South Korea sends Ukraine aid but no weapons, under its rule against arming countries at war. [42] Ukraine has not apologised, lawmakers were told. [42]

A team of Palestinian archaeologists is digging museum pieces out of the rubble across southern and central Gaza, Al Jazeera reports. [43] UNESCO, the UN's culture agency, says at least 164 cultural sites in Gaza have been damaged since October 2023. [43] The team works from a tent in al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis, cleaning, photographing and recording each piece. [43] Some collections lie beyond the 'Yellow Line', the zone Israel's army controls, where 196 Palestinians had been killed by April. [43]

Why it matters. It is the first organised local effort to record what the war did to Gaza's 5,000-year history. [43] The team still does not know where it can store what it saves. [43]