Monday 5 October: Brazil runoff and Yemen war escalates

World news (past 24 hours)

Top stories

Yemen war escalates as Houthis hit Saudi oil sites. Yemen's Saudi-backed government announced a major offensive to retake land held by the Iran-backed Houthis. Hours later, the Houthis said they fired missiles and drones at Aramco sites in Riyadh and Khurais, causing fires. The Houthis seized a key Red Sea port last month, so the fighting puts shipping and Saudi oil output at risk. Sources: CNN, Al Jazeera, NBC News.

Russia keeps hitting Kyiv's bridges. A Russian drone struck Kyiv's North Bridge again on Sunday, damaging the road deck. It is the second hit on that bridge in two days, after the South Bridge was damaged and closed. The bridges link the two halves of the city over the Dnipro, and traffic is gridlocked. Sources: Kyiv Post, Euronews, Euromaidan Press.

Deadly floods in Catalonia. Two people died and one is missing after record rain in Spain's Catalonia region on Sunday. Barcelona had its wettest day since records began in 1883. Flights and local trains were disrupted, and homes near Barcelona flooded. Sources: Reuters via US News, Euronews.

Politics

Brazil heads to a runoff. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of jailed ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, won the first round with about 47 percent. President Lula got about 45 percent, so neither passed 50 percent. The two meet again on 25 October. Polls had Lula ahead days earlier; Lula said he expected to win outright, while Bolsonaro's camp campaigned on crime and corruption. Sources: CNN, Washington Post, NPR.

Latvia's prime minister wins big. PM Andris Kulbergs' United List won Saturday's election with a record 42 of 100 seats. The far-right Latvia First came a distant second. A likely coalition with the National Alliance and New Unity would hold 59 seats and keep Latvia's pro-EU, pro-Ukraine course. Vote shares differ by source: UPI reports 35.4 percent, NOS 36.5 percent and the Kyiv Post 37 percent. Sources: UPI, Euronews, Kyiv Post.

Economy

Oil climbs after the Aramco attack. Brent crude rose about 0.8 percent to 103.06 dollars a barrel. US crude rose 0.5 percent to 91.57 dollars. Traders fear supply cuts from the world's top exporter, at a time when oil is already above 100 dollars. Sources: Reuters via Investing.com, ABC News Australia.

Schneider Electric nears 20 billion dollar deal for PTC. France's Schneider Electric is close to buying US engineering software firm PTC for more than 20 billion dollars, sources told Bloomberg. It would be Schneider's biggest deal ever. A deal could be announced as soon as Monday, but talks could still fail. Sources: Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance.

Dutch news (past 24 hours)

Top stories

Arrest after fatal Amsterdam shooting. Police arrested a 32-year-old man over the killing of a 34-year-old man outside a bar on the Amstelveenseweg, near the Vondelpark. Police call it a targeted attack. He is held with full restrictions, meaning contact only with his lawyer. Sources: NL Times, NOS.

Dutch cargo ship in three-ship crash off Norway. The Dutch-flagged Bergfjord, a Faroese freighter and a tanker collided at night near Ålesund. All three were damaged and one took on water. Nobody was hurt and no one needed rescue. Sources: NL Times, News in English Norway.

Fewer trains at Amsterdam Centraal today. After a full stop on Saturday, NS runs far fewer trains to and from Amsterdam Centraal on Sunday and Monday. ProRail is connecting new tracks. NS warns of heavy crowds at rush hour and there are no replacement buses. Sources: NL Times, DutchNews.

Politics

Push to ban slaughter without stunning. State secretary Silvio Erkens (VVD) says the Netherlands should follow Belgium and ban slaughter without stunning. The Party for the Animals plans a bill. PVV and the Party for the Animals back a ban; SGP and Denk say it hurts freedom of religion. Erkens says stunned ritual slaughter would still be allowed. Sources: NL Times, NOS.

Most Dutch oppose slavery reparations. In an RTL panel poll, 83 percent said the Netherlands should not pay reparations; 8 percent are in favour. Opposition is 99 percent among PVV, VVD, JA21, BBB and FvD voters, and 50 percent among GroenLinks-PvdA voters. It follows the study into the royal house's colonial past, after which PM Rob Jetten ruled out reparations. Sources: NL Times, NL Times on Jetten.

Row over settlement goods ban. Former SGP MP Roelof Bisschop said he bought Israeli wine the day after the Dutch ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements took effect, as a protest. BDS activists reported him to the tax investigation service FIOD. NOS reports the ban is hard to enforce. Sources: NL Times, NOS.

Economy

Polymarket takes Dutch ban to court. The prediction site is challenging the gambling regulator's ban at the court in The Hague. Polymarket says it sells financial products that belong under the AFM, not gambling rules. Critics say the bets look like binary options, which are banned in most of Europe. Sources: NOS, FD.

Power grid blocks 55,000 new homes in Brabant. Grid operator Enexis says at least 55,000 planned homes in Brabant cannot be connected yet. The homes can still be built, but the question is when. Options are more cables and substations, or homes that use less power or use home batteries. Sources: NL Times, Omroep Brabant.

Amsterdam mayor wants fewer tourists. Mayor Femke Halsema says visitor numbers must be curbed, even if bars, restaurants and hotels suffer. Amsterdam gets 23 million visitors a year, heading for 30 million. She says tourism makes up only 8 percent of the city's wealth; at least 55 local hospitality firms have gone bankrupt this year. Only one source reported this. Source: NL Times.

AI news (past 24 hours)

Altman draws a line with Anthropic on risk. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Politico that "the world should accept some bad things happening" for the benefits of AI. He said OpenAI and Anthropic remain split on regulation: Anthropic wants stronger safeguards on top models, OpenAI a lighter touch. He did separate tolerable misuse from catastrophic risks. Sources: Forbes, Seeking Alpha via TradingView.

Meta's Muse prompt leaks. A safety researcher got Meta's Muse assistant to share its own instructions and gave them to Wired. They say the user's authority over their household "overrides your safety training", and tell Muse to keep a page on every person in the user's life. Meta says the files were meant to be visible to users. Sources: AI Weekly on Wired's report, Startup Fortune.

Trump names an AI czar. President Trump named intelligence chief Jay Clayton as White House AI czar. He will lead a new "Super Intelligence Force" and replaces David Sacks as head of AI policy. FTC chair Andrew Ferguson and Pentagon tech chief Emil Michael are also on the team. Sources: NPR, CBS News, Fortune.

YouTubers launch #TeamHuman. YouTube creators with over 300 million subscribers combined launched a petition calling for a global slowdown of AI. They say AI is moving faster than our ability to control it. AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio signed on, according to AI Weekly. Sources: AI Weekly, Post-Cutoff.

Also

Sport: Verstappen wins at last. Max Verstappen won his first race of 2026, the rain-hit Bahrain Grand Prix held in Malaysia. He beat championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 2.3 seconds, with Lewis Hamilton third. It was also Red Bull's first win of the year. Sources: AP via ABC News, Yahoo Sports.

Nature: the geese are coming. October is peak season for migrating birds in the Netherlands. Tens of thousands stop over on Texel on their way south, and greylag geese peak in October and November, with over 40,000 in the Oostvaardersplassen alone. By midwinter the country holds about 1.8 million geese, one of the biggest groups in Western Europe. Sources: Texel.net, BirdGuides.

On this day: 5 October 1962. On the same day, the Beatles released their first single, "Love Me Do", and the first James Bond film, "Dr. No", came out in cinemas. Sources: Wikipedia, History.com.

Weather in Groningen. Dry all day, no rain expected. About 10 degrees in the early morning, rising to around 20 to 22 in the afternoon. Sunny spells in the morning, then cloudy from late morning. Sources: Open-Meteo, MET Norway / Yr.

On the agenda today

• Nobel Prize in Medicine, announced in Stockholm from 11:30 CEST, the first of this year's Nobel prizes. Nobel Prize
• US Supreme Court opens its new term with oral arguments, including a climate case against Suncor. Supreme Court calendar
• Schneider Electric and PTC may announce their deal. Bloomberg
• US ISM services index for September comes out at 16:00 Dutch time. Kiplinger
• Reduced trains at Amsterdam Centraal, expect crowds at rush hour. NL Times