World
Ukraine said Russian forces hit power plants and other targets less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump announced an "energy ceasefire" between Russia and Ukraine. Trump wrote on social media on Sunday that both sides had agreed to stop striking energy infrastructure immediately. Moscow did not confirm the claim. By Monday, Ukrainian officials reported drone attacks across the country and fresh strikes on energy facilities, including damage in Kharkiv, with reports of at least six people killed. The Kremlin said it would halt strikes only on election day if Ukraine holds a vote, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a wartime election would be unlawful and would need security guarantees.
The Guardian
Politics
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are considering firing US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after reports alleging improper and possibly illegal conduct, a senior US official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said both men are "extremely pissed off" and would likely decide on action this week. The Wall Street Journal has reported allegations including a threat to a host-country official, accepting improper gifts and services, and offering to use her influence in return for payment of a large credit card bill. In a separate dispute, the Justice Department is investigating whether a White House television press pool boycott of Trump coverage broke antitrust law.
AP News
Business
Oil prices rose to near two-week highs on Monday as attacks on Saudi Arabia outweighed the prospect of extra supply after President Donald Trump welcomed fresh Russian diesel exports and a claimed Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire. Crude traded at about $93 a barrel, up roughly 1.3%, after reports of an attack on a Saudi airport pushed prices up nearly $2. Trump said Russia would supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, plus further cargoes in the following weeks. A bipartisan group of six US senators demanded the administration reverse the plan, saying it gives Vladimir Putin a financial lifeline.
Reuters
Technology
Google has confirmed that its first Project Suncatcher satellite is operating as expected, weeks after launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from California on 1 October. The spacecraft carries four Trillium tensor processing units, the same family of AI chips that power Google's Gemini models, and was built with satellite company Planet. Google says an orbiting solar panel can generate several times the energy of the same panel on Earth. The chips survived launch forces of 50 to 100 times Earth's gravity and proton-beam radiation testing at UC Davis with no hard failures. Two satellites are to test laser links in 2027.
Fortune
Science
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. IceCube is buried in the clear ice beneath the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, with more than 5,000 optical sensors spread through a cubic kilometre of ice. Construction finished in 2011 and the discovery of cosmic neutrinos was announced two years later. Nobel week also honoured optogenetics, asymmetric organic synthesis and, on 12 October, the economics prize for work on macroeconomic stabilisation.
NobelPrize.org
Sports
Australia moved to the edge of victory in the first Test against South Africa at Kingsmead, declaring their second innings at 314 for 6 on Monday and setting the hosts a target of 421. South Africa reached 102 for 4 by stumps on day four, still needing 319 runs with six wickets in hand. Matt Renshaw, who made 190 in Australia's first-innings 390, took his maiden Test wicket by dismissing captain Temba Bavuma. Opener Nic Maddinson set the tone with 48 from 38 balls. Bad light ended the first three days early; day four went the distance.
ESPNcricinfo
Health
The US Department of Health and Human Services has launched a set of actions on how the federal government identifies, documents and investigates health problems reported after vaccination. The plan includes a clinic at the National Institutes of Health for patients who report problems following vaccination, changes to monitoring systems, and reimbursements for doctors who file VAERS reports. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said patients must be taken seriously. Critics including vaccine expert Paul Offit said the effort would produce misleading studies and further shake parents' confidence. The CDC has reported 4,080 measles cases this year.
HHS
Environment
Heavy rain flooded roads in parts of Mogadishu on Monday, disrupting transport, business activity and access to schools in the Somali capital. The downpour came at the start of the Deyr rains, the October-to-December season that in bad years brings some of the country's worst flooding. The FAO has warned of an elevated risk of riverine and flash flooding along the Juba and Shabelle rivers, made worse by a positive Indian Ocean Dipole. Modelling by the Danish Refugee Council suggests between 408,000 and 1.8 million people could be displaced through December.
Reuters