Friday 2 October: oil tops 100 dollars, Ebola in Leiden

World news (past 24 hours)

Top stories

Russian drone hits a Kyiv school. A Russian drone struck a school in Kyiv on Thursday while about 100 children and 60 staff sat in the shelter. The warhead did not explode and no one was hurt. Drones also hit a key bridge over the Dnipro, and a data centre was knocked offline. President Zelenskyy asked allies for more air defence missiles in October. (AP via KSAT, Washington Times)

Mass funeral in Gaza City for 105 people. Palestinians buried 105 people, including 60 children, whose remains were pulled from the rubble of homes in Gaza City. Al Jazeera says they died in a strike on the Al Taj 3 building in October 2023, while Democracy Now described them as victims of recent strikes. Al Jazeera also reports eight Palestinians killed in the past day, despite the ceasefire of October 2025. (Al Jazeera, Africanews, Democracy Now)

Nepal avalanche toll rises to 15. Rescuers found eight more bodies on Thursday at the base camp of Mount Himlung, bringing the toll to 15. The victims were Nepali guides and kitchen staff who were setting up camp for foreign climbers. One person is still missing, and the search resumes today. (Xinhua, Deccan Herald)

Politics

Brazil's final TV debate is cancelled. TV Globo scrapped the last debate before Sunday's election after President Lula and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro both pulled out. Lula has skipped every debate this year; Bolsonaro withdrew hours before the start. Globo also pointed to late court rulings that changed the rules. Datafolha has Lula at 40 percent and Bolsonaro at 36 percent in the first round, so a runoff on 25 October looks likely. (Reuters via US News, BusinessWorld, Rio Times)

Tennessee halts executions after failed lethal injection. Governor Bill Lee stopped all remaining executions this year after Christa Pike survived two doses of a lethal drug on Wednesday. He ordered an independent review of what went wrong. Her lawyers say she is in critical condition in hospital. (NPR, Tennessee Lookout)

Economy

Brent oil back above 100 dollars. Oil jumped after Chinese refiners stopped fuel exports for October, apart from shipments to Hong Kong and Macau. Brent rose above 100 dollars a barrel. Reports differ on the close: one puts Brent at about 100 dollars, another at just over 102 dollars. It is unclear if exports restart after China's holiday ends on 7 October. (Quartz via Yahoo Finance, Rio Times)

US borrowing costs hit two-decade highs. The yield on ten-year US government bonds touched 5.34 percent, the highest since 2002. Investors fear more rate rises as oil keeps prices up. US factory activity grew for a ninth month, with the ISM index at 54.5, just below forecasts. Stocks still ended the day slightly higher. (PR Newswire / ISM, Rio Times, TheStreet)

Dutch news (past 24 hours)

Top stories

Ebola patient flown to Leiden. An aid worker from Doctors Without Borders who caught Ebola in Congo arrived at the LUMC in Leiden on Thursday evening. The patient flew in on a French private plane and is in strict isolation. Health minister Sophie Hermans says the hospital is ready and there is no risk to patients or visitors. (NOS, Hart van Nederland)

Hans Anders stops selling Meta camera glasses. The optician chain pulled the glasses from its shops and website, citing the public and political debate on privacy. NL Times reports that hundreds of Dutch women and girls were filmed with such glasses and put on websites. The Consumentenbond and two groups have given Meta until 13 October to respond or face court. (TPO, NL Times, NOS)

Four more West Nile virus deaths. The RIVM reported four more deaths, bringing the total to nine, with 56 infections. One person caught the virus through a blood transfusion. Most cases are in Zuid-Holland. The RIVM says the outbreak seems past its peak. (NL Times, Reuters via Yahoo)

Politics

EU stops aid to Sierra Leone over Bolle Jos. The European Commission halted payments to Sierra Leone because it will not hand over drug boss Jos Leijdekkers. Sierra Leone was due 18 million euro this year. Justice minister David van Weel welcomed the move, but NOS reports Brussels is annoyed that he framed it as a sanction, while it calls it a technical step. (NL Times, NOS, DutchNews)

Temporary border checks end. The checks at the borders with Belgium and Germany, brought in at the end of 2024, stopped on Thursday. The Marechaussee now uses a wider mobile system: checks up to 20 kilometres from the border and up to 120 hours a month per road. The Marechaussee says this makes checks less predictable for smugglers. (Marechaussee, Transport Online)

Unions back at the table with the cabinet. Prime minister Jetten will meet unions and employers at the Catshuis next Wednesday, the first such talks since May. The unions had refused to talk until planned cuts to unemployment and disability benefits were dropped, which the cabinet has now done. Pro, Volt and ChristenUnie back the Social Affairs budget, but support for the tax plan is still lacking. (NOS, Vandaag en Morgen)

Economy

Katwijk says yes to Eli Lilly factory. The Katwijk council approved the permit for a medicine plant by the US drug maker, by 28 votes to 4. Eli Lilly will invest about 2.6 billion euro to make diabetes and weight-loss pills. Residents filed 813 objections over noise, traffic and water quality, and the council turned down a referendum. (NOS, Reformatorisch Dagblad, Cobouw)

Wages in collective agreements up 4 percent. CBS says cao wages rose 4.0 percent in the third quarter. After inflation, workers gained 0.8 percent, the twelfth quarter in a row of real growth. Wage growth is slowing, down from a peak of 6.8 percent in 2024. (CBS)

Rivers too low to measure. The IJssel, Nederrijn and much of the Waal are so low that Rijkswaterstaat's boats can no longer measure safe depths. Skippers must now judge for themselves. The Rhine at Lobith hit its lowest level since records began in 1866. Ships carry far less cargo; in August almost a fifth less freight went by inland shipping than a year before. (NOS, TPO, Transport Online, Schuttevaer)

AI news (past 24 hours)

Anthropic: Barclays widens use of Claude. Barclays says half of its software developers will use Claude Code by the end of this year, and most of them in 2027. Its staff assistant has over 16,000 users, and Claude handles about 120,000 emails a day in its markets business. Bloomberg notes the deal comes as Anthropic prepares for a stock market listing. (Anthropic, Bloomberg)

Google rolls out Gemini 4 Argon to security partners. Google's new top model goes first to a small group of cyber defence partners, before a wider launch. Google says it can find and fix serious software flaws on its own. Google prices it at 2 dollars per million tokens of input and 10 dollars per million tokens of output. (CNBC, Dataconomy)

Tech

Google sends AI chips into space. A SpaceX rocket launched Google's Suncatcher test satellite on Thursday, carrying four of its AI chips. The test checks if the chips survive radiation and heat in orbit. Google's long-term idea is clusters of satellites that work as solar-powered data centres. (Scientific American, CNN)

OpenAI accuses Moonshot-linked users of copying its models. OpenAI says users linked to Chinese AI firm Moonshot tried to extract its models' hidden reasoning. Activity peaked at 16,000 requests from over 4,000 users in July. OpenAI banned the accounts and shared its findings with other labs and governments. (SC World, The Next Web)

Also

Sports: Oranje fight back in Greece. The Netherlands drew 2-2 in Greece in the Nations League after trailing 2-0 at half-time. Virgil van Dijk headed in his fourteenth goal, level with Ronald Koeman's record for a Dutch defender, and Tijjani Reijnders scored in the 89th minute. It saved coach Xavi from his first defeat. (NOS, FCUpdate)

Nature fact. Autumn colours are triggered mainly by shorter days, not cold. As trees stop making green chlorophyll, the yellow and orange pigments that were there all summer show through. The reds are new: they form in bright light, so sunny autumn days like today give stronger colours. (US Forest Service, Almanac)

On this day. On 2 October 1950, the first Peanuts comic strip appeared, in just seven newspapers. Charles Schulz disliked the name the publisher picked. At its peak the strip ran in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. (Schulz Museum, Time)

Weather in Groningen. Hazy at first, then lots of sun from midday. Low of 10 degrees, high of about 20 degrees in the afternoon, light southwest wind. Mostly dry: one forecast expects no rain at all, another allows for up to half a millimetre. (Weersvoorspelling.nl, Weeronline)

On the agenda today

• Eurozone inflation: Eurostat publishes its first estimate for September. August was 3.2 percent, and higher energy prices point up. (Eurostat)
• US jobs report: the September figures come out at 14:30 Dutch time. (BLS schedule)
• Nepal: the search for the last missing worker on Mount Himlung resumes. (Xinhua)