World, in brief

Gulf officials say the US warned them new strikes on Iran could come on 4 November. [1]

That is the day after the US midterms, three Gulf officials told MSNOW, a US channel. [1]

On Saturday, Iran's negotiators held talks in Doha, Qatar's capital, with Qatari mediators. [2]

The same day, Iran's supreme leader ordered his forces to answer any attack, anywhere. [3]

Iran says it would answer new strikes by hitting US and Israeli targets in nearby countries. [2]

Gulf states are pressing the US government to calm things, fearing Iran's reply. [1]

An analyst at the International Crisis Group said talks and war plans are "proceeding simultaneously". [9]

Students of strategy call this coercive diplomacy: talking while showing you could strike. [9]

Iran's threat makes Gulf states that host US bases possible targets. [2]

The contents of Vance's letter have not been made public. [9]

The next date to watch is 4 November, the day after the US vote. [1]

The US government is talking to Iran through Qatar while telling Gulf allies that strikes could resume on 4 November. [2][1]

Iran's foreign minister offers to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days, and its supreme leader has ordered his army to hit back anywhere if attacked. [10][3]

A named date, 4 November, makes new strikes sound settled, though Rubio says Trump has not decided. [1][6]

Its envoys carry messages between Iran and the US, in talks a source says are coordinated with the US government. [2]

Whether the US will strike Iran after Tuesday's vote.

Gulf officials were told 4 November; Rubio says Trump has not decided, and only the two governments know their plans. [1][6]

What is inside Pickaxe Mountain.

Western intelligence thinks it may store nuclear material; Iran's government denies any nuclear work there. [1][4]

What JD Vance's letter to Iran says.

It has not been published; Trump says it is about medical supplies, while US newspapers described it as a bid to restart talks. [9][2]

Whether Iran will drop its ban on nuclear weapons.

Its security chief says this is being debated in case war resumes, and that no decision has been taken. [2]

Tens of thousands of young Germans marched on Saturday against high prices and school cuts. [25]

The group behind the marches is called Gen Z regelt, meaning "Gen Z takes charge". [26]

Marches took place in more than 30 German cities. [16]

They want better-funded schools and oppose a return of compulsory army service. [26]

Organisers said 100,000 people took part across Germany. [14]

Police counted about 5,000 in Berlin and 8,000 in Frankfurt. [27]

After dark, masked rioters looted shops in Frankfurt, Germany's banking city. [28]

They threw Molotov cocktails, bottles of burning fuel, at police and rescue crews. [26]

Police seized two weapons after rioters smashed a gun shop's windows. [26]

Roman Poseck, Hesse state's interior minister, blamed about 100 "left-wing extremists". [26]

DW, Germany's international broadcaster, said the riots overshadowed a day of peaceful marches. [14]

The marches were inspired by movements in France and Italy; researchers call such spreading diffusion. [28]

The movement itself rejected the violence, the Straits Times reported. [28]

Why a few rioters decide how a whole march is remembered

A big, mostly peaceful march also draws a few people who come to fight

Cameras, police and politicians watch the fighting, not the marching

The whole movement starts to be judged by its most violent members

Officials answer with rules for everyone: routes moved, marches stopped, masks banned

Peaceful marchers now spend their time arguing about the violence, not their demands

In Germany on Saturday, about 100 people in Frankfurt decided what politicians said about marches the organisers put at 100,000.

Two counts from Germany on Saturday: everyone who marched, as the organisers counted it, and the people Hesse's interior minister blamed for the riots.

Hesse's minister blamed about 100 left-wing extremists, and DW said the riots overshadowed a day of peaceful marches.

After looting on 17 October, France's government moved every Paris march to the city's edge, so 70,000 peaceful marchers walked a route chosen because of rioters.

Britain banned Palestine Action as a whole under its terror law, so retirees holding signs are now arrested under the same law as the group.

Netanyahu's supporters called a government backed by Arab parties a "terrorist government", though those parties won 840,000 votes in an election.

It can also run the other way: the sociologist Herbert Haines, who named the effect in 1984, found more money went to moderate US civil rights groups as radical ones grew.

Most people in Frankfurt on Saturday marched, went home, and woke to read that their protest was a riot.

How many Germans really marched.

Organisers said 100,000 and the Straits Times about 120,000; police counted about 5,000 in Berlin and 8,000 in Frankfurt. [14][28][27]

About 320,000 people marched across France on Saturday, its interior ministry said. [15]

It was the third Saturday in a row of protests over prices and schools. [16]

The movement began last month with high school students angry about run-down schools. [29]

France's government counted 550,000 on 17 October and 410,000 on 24 October. [29]

President Emmanuel Macron said marches would stay out of city centres to protect shops. [29]

So 70,000 people in Paris marched along boulevards at the city's edge. [15]

As marches ended, masked rioters threw paving stones at police in Paris. [15]

Police arrested 565 people across France by late Saturday, France's interior ministry said. [15]

One officer in Paris was hit by a Molotov cocktail; the minister called it "attempted murder". [15]

Losses to shops from the unrest have passed $1.1 billion, The National reports. [30]

Fitch, a credit rating agency, has turned its outlook on France's debt negative. [30]

The National says police limits on routes may have kept some people at home. [30]

France's presidential election is six months away. [16]

Public-order police plan routes away from targets; Macron said marches would avoid city centres. [29]

After looting on 17 October, France's government moved every Paris march to the city's edge, so 70,000 peaceful marchers walked a route chosen because of rioters.

Macron kept Saturday's marches out of city centres to protect shops. [29]

Police cancelled a Cologne march after some covered their faces, and kept the Paris march to the city's edge. [16][15]

Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats and Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc won 48. [31]

Neither side has the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat parliament. [17]

Israel's three Arab-led parties won 19 seats, up sharply. [31]

Nearly 840,000 people voted for them, 64% more than in 2022. [31]

Ahmad Tibi, a Joint List lawmaker, said his party would back Eisenkot without cabinet seats. [32]

On Saturday Eisenkot set four conditions for anyone joining his government. [17]

One is calling Hamas, the armed group that ran Gaza, a terrorist organisation. [17]

Thousands rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday urging Eisenkot to govern with Arab parties. [31]

Netanyahu's supporters held a rival rally with signs saying "No to a terrorist government". [32]

With the Arab parties, Eisenkot's side would have a 67-seat majority. [31]

Netanyahu accuses Arab parties of "stealing" the vote with money from Qatar, which Qatar denies. [31]

Polymarket, a betting website, is checking suspicious last-minute bets on a Netanyahu win. [33]

Political scientists call this a hung parliament: with no majority, smaller parties decide who governs. [31]

Netanyahu's supporters called a government backed by Arab parties a "terrorist government", though those parties won 840,000 votes in an election.

Their 19 seats are the votes Eisenkot needs for a 67-seat majority. [31]

Whether Eisenkot will govern with Arab votes.

The Joint List offers support without cabinet seats, but Eisenkot's conditions include calling Hamas a terrorist group. [32][17]

Bulgarians voted on Sunday in a runoff to choose their president. [34]

Iliana Yotova, the acting president, favours talks with Russia and opposes military aid to Ukraine. [35]

Andrey Gyurov, a banker and former caretaker prime minister, is backed by the pro-Western opposition. [35]

In the first round on 25 October, Yotova won 34.76% and Gyurov 31.95%. [36]

Only 23% of voters took part, a record low. [34]

Bulgaria's president can veto laws and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. [36]

Drone attacks on ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast left 21 people missing in October. [35]

Prime Minister Rumen Radev's government says nothing yet ties the attacks directly to Russia. [35]

The vote is the first big test for Radev's Moscow-friendly party, which backs Yotova. [34]

Gyurov says Yotova avoids blaming Russia for the attacks on ships. [36]

Yotova says aid to Ukraine "leads only to more destruction". [36]

Exit polls come after voting ends at 8pm, and official results on Monday. [34]

In this two-round system, if nobody wins half, the top two face each other again. [36]

Who will be Bulgaria's president.

Exit polls come after voting ends at 8pm on Sunday, and official results on Monday. [34]

Hundreds of people evacuated from Oleshky reached Ukrainian-held land on Saturday. [37]

Oleshky, a city on the Dnipro River, has been held by Russia since early 2022. [37]

Residents too afraid to go out cooked garden weeds to survive. [37]

A truce in the Kherson region began Tuesday and was due to end Sunday evening. [38]

Melania Trump, the US first lady, helped broker the truce, the US president's office said. [38]

The evacuees went through Russia, flew to Belarus, then crossed by bus into Ukraine. [37]

Melania Trump said the convoy could safely carry out more than 750 people. [38]

Up to 6,000 people may still live in and around Oleshky, the BBC reported. [37]

Mykhailo Palii's daughters ran screaming across the tarmac in Chernihiv to hug him. [37]

Officials from Russia and Ukraine worked together on it, which is rare in this war. [38]

Olha, one evacuee, said her family has no relatives elsewhere in Ukraine. [37]

Volunteers and Red Cross teams met the evacuees at the border with coffee and food. [39]

Up to 6,000 may still be in and around the city, and the truce was due to end on Sunday evening. [37][38]

Hundreds of people evacuated from Oleshky, a Russian-held city where some cooked weeds to survive, reached Ukrainian-held land on Saturday. In Chernihiv, Mykhailo Palii's daughters ran across the tarmac to hug him.

Foreign ministers of the G20, a group of the 20 biggest economies, met in Atlanta. [23]

The two-day meeting ended on Saturday without a joint statement. [23]

Europe and Canada objected to Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, taking part. [23]

Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, said Lavrov told "a lot of lies". [40]

Marco Rubio, the host, said the war cannot end without talking to Russia. [23]

He said interest is growing in a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea. [23]

It would protect grain and energy shipments from Russia and Ukraine. [23]

The US is studying proposals from Turkey and India to get grain ships moving. [23]

Kallas warned that Putin joining December's G20 summit in Florida risks normalising war crimes. [41]

Putin has not said whether he will attend the December summit. [41]

Lavrov welcomed the US approach and called Europe's stance an "arrogant boycott". [40]

He sat at the G20 table in Atlanta, and Rubio defended inviting him. [23]

Israeli artillery shelled towns in south Lebanon's Bint Jbeil district on Saturday, Lebanese media said. [42]

An Israeli air strike also hit the town of Mansouri. [42]

Israel is building roads linking the army posts it set up in the south. [42]

Israel invaded this year and occupies large parts of Lebanon's south and east. [42]

Hezbollah, an armed Lebanese group, attacked Israel in support of Iran after February. [42]

Israel has killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon since February and displaced one million. [42]

Lebanon's foreign minister, Youssef Rajji, called for a full Israeli withdrawal. [43]

He said Lebanon's government has banned Hezbollah's military activities. [43]

Rajji asked Gulf states to help Lebanon's government control its own territory. [43]

Taiwan says two Chinese coast guard ships patrolled off its east coast on Saturday. [44]

Taiwan's coast guard said China is "trying to exert a fictional jurisdiction" and harassing ships. [44]

Chinese state TV showed a ship radioing that it was carrying out law enforcement. [44]

China says Taiwan is part of its territory; Taiwan rejects that claim. [44]

China has run regular patrols east of the island since June. [44]

Another Chinese coast guard ship came close to the Pratas Islands, which Taiwan controls. [44]

Taiwan says it has expelled Chinese coast guard ships from Pratas waters 13 times this year. [44]

Taiwan's officials think China is practising a blockade of the island by sea. [44]

Taiwan sees its east coast waters as key supply routes in any war. [44]

Taiwan says China mixes military, paramilitary and civilian forces, which experts call grey-zone pressure. [44]

Security experts see the Pratas Islands, over 400km from Taiwan, as vulnerable to attack. [44]

Poland's president, Karol Nawrocki, held crisis talks on Saturday over the country's top court. [45]

On Friday, judges chosen by parliament suspended the court's chief judge, Bogdan Swieczkowski. [22]

He was appointed under Law and Justice, the right-wing party that ruled from 2015 to 2023. [45]

The court decides whether laws fit Poland's constitution. [45]

Prime Minister Donald Tusk's party stayed away from the president's talks. [45]

In a TV speech, Tusk said: "In certain matters, there can be no compromise." [22]

The European Commission, the EU's executive, said choosing the judges is parliament's power. [46]

Law and Justice supporters protested outside the court again on Saturday. [45]

Nawrocki called the suspension a threat to Poland's internal security. [45]

Each camp says the other's judges are not lawful judges. [22]

EU law matters too: the Commission says the tribunal must respect the EU court's rulings. [46]

Tens of thousands gathered in Delhi on Sunday for an opposition rally led by Rahul Gandhi. [19]

Gandhi leads the Indian National Congress, India's main opposition party. [19]

They demand the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, India's chief election commissioner. [19]

A review of voter lists has removed 130 million names from draft rolls. [19]

The Election Commission says it is clearing out people who died or moved. [19]

The opposition says eligible voters are being cut, helping Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, the BJP. [19]

The Indian Express reported that Kumar acted over his two fellow commissioners' objections. [19]

Police with batons and riot vehicles surrounded the rally ground. [47]

The BJP held its own march the same day, recalling the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. [48]

Analysts call the protests Modi's worst crisis since he took power in 2014. [47]

India's next general election is not due until 2029. [47]

Both the BJP and the Election Commission deny the opposition's charges. [19]

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, thanked the US for approving a sale of 500 Patriot interceptors. [49]

Patriots are interceptors that shoot down ballistic missiles, which Russia fires at Ukraine. [49]