Friday 9 October: Pryluky strike, Gulf attacks, oil over 100

World news (past 24 hours)

Pryluky strike toll rises to 22

A Russian cruise missile hit a five-storey apartment building in Pryluky, in northern Ukraine, early on 7 October. Ukraine's emergency service said on 8 October that 22 people died, five of them children, and 54 were hurt. The strike was part of a night attack with about 70 missiles and 130 drones. Early reports gave lower tolls, and outlets still differ on the national total. (Meduza, Euromaidan Press, ABC News)

Houthi attacks shut down flights in Riyadh

Saudi Arabia says Houthi attacks on airports in Riyadh and Abha killed three foreign nationals and injured 36. On Thursday, footage showed an empty passenger plane hit at Riyadh's main airport. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed that strike. About 300 flights there were cancelled, and several foreign airlines halted service. The Saudi-led coalition says it struck 82 Houthi targets in response. (Al Jazeera, Time, France 24)

Tanker hit deep in the Gulf

A tanker was hit by several projectiles about 51 nautical miles north of Qatar, the UK maritime agency UKMTO said. Casualties were reported, but no attacker was named. It was the first tanker attack this deep in the Gulf in about a month. It came after Iran warned ships not to use routes around its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. (Oilprice, Arab News, Democracy Now)

Report: White House asks for Iran strike options before midterms

The Atlantic, citing two officials, reports that the White House asked the Pentagon for strike options against Iran that could be used before the 3 November midterms. No decision has been made. A White House official said the president "has all options available at any time". Supporters of limited strikes admit they would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz on their own. (Iran International, Jerusalem Post, Al Arabiya)

Spain: evicted pensioner dies before election

Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction in Madrid set off protests across Spain, died in hospital on Wednesday. Her landlord had raised her rent sharply, and she was carried out on a stretcher in September. The housing row helped lead to a snap election on 29 November. Earlier reports said she had a deal to return home, but she died before she could. (Democracy Now, Morning Star, ITV)

Oil above 100 dollars, bonds and stocks under pressure

Brent oil rose more than 2 percent to above 102 dollars a barrel after the Iran report and the Gulf attacks. The US 10-year yield touched 5.36 percent this week, the highest since 2002. Fed minutes show most officials expect one more rate hike this year. Stocks fell in Europe and Asia, and the Nasdaq dropped over 1 percent. (CNBC, Bloomberg, The Hill)

Samsung posts record profit

Samsung expects an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won for the third quarter, about 75 to 80 billion dollars. That is up almost 800 percent from a year ago and the first time a Korean firm passed 100 trillion won in a quarter. Demand for AI memory chips drove the jump. Growth compared to the last quarter is slowing, some analysts note. (CNBC, Seoul Economic Daily, Motley Fool)

Dutch news (past 24 hours)

Drought puts 425,000 buildings at risk

About 425,000 buildings have foundation damage now or face a higher risk soon, according to Deltares figures in the news this week. Dry summers make the problem worse. Repairs could cost more than 11 billion euro, and about 75,000 owners cannot pay. Sources differ on how many homes are badly damaged now. (NOS, TPO)

Report: old transgender law caused deep harm

A Radboud University report says the old transgender law, in force from 1985 to 2014, caused deep physical, mental and social harm. People had to be sterilised to change their legal gender. The study is based on 28 in-depth interviews. State secretary Judith Tielen called the report valuable. (NOS, Radboud University)

Regional bus and tram strikes likely

Unions FNV and CNV will announce actions in regional public transport today at noon. Their ultimatum to employers ran out on Wednesday. They want a 6 percent pay rise, and earlier spoke of one strike day a week until Christmas. About 13,000 workers at firms like Arriva, Qbuzz, Keolis and Transdev are covered. (Mobiliteit.nl, Nieuws.nl, FNV)

Defence minister calls Russia "the enemy"

In the defence budget debate, minister Dilan Yeşilgöz called Russia an enemy, not just an aggressor. She said this does not mean the Netherlands is at war. Foreign minister Tom Berendsen used the same word after pressure from the opposition and said it does not change policy. The Russian embassy asked for an explanation and warned of escalation. (Nederlands Dagblad, Reformatorisch Dagblad, Nieuws.nl)

Rainbow flag will fly at parliament

The Tweede Kamer voted 90 to 36 on Thursday evening to fly the rainbow flag at its building on Sunday, Coming Out Day. The SGP had forced a roll-call vote. The SGP says the flag is a symbol of activism, not a national flag. The proposal came from Kati Piri of PRO. PVV, Forum voor Democratie and Denk also voted against, according to most reports. (NOS, Reformatorisch Dagblad)

Box 3 funding plan delayed

The cabinet's new plan to pay for changes to the wealth tax, box 3, will not come until the end of this month. Coalition parties do not yet agree on where the money should come from. The delay keeps savers and investors waiting for clarity. (Reformatorisch Dagblad, BNR)

House prices rise more slowly

The average home sold through NVM agents cost 503,000 euro in the third quarter, 1.8 percent more than a year ago. The number of homes for sale rose by about 24 percent to 39,000. Sales held steady at about 41,700. The market is still tight: in nearly two thirds of sales, buyers bid over the asking price. (NVM, NOS)

KLM cuts flights until March

KLM will cancel flights from 26 October until early March because too many planes are in for maintenance or repairs. Slow delivery of parts is part of the problem. KLM does not yet know how many flights or which routes. Its maintenance arm has been under stricter oversight by the transport inspectorate since May. (TPO, Transport Online)

Third economic story

Nothing of note.

AI news (past 24 hours)

OpenAI brings GPT-6 to free users

OpenAI's GPT-6 with "Intelligent UI" reached free and Go users on Thursday, a day after paid users. Answers can now include buttons, calculators and charts you can edit inside the chat. Paid plans get GPT-6 Sol, free plans GPT-6 Luna. Sources differ a little on model names and versions. (OpenAI, Android Headlines, TestingCatalog)

Other big AI labs

Nothing of note.

OpenAI revenue figure hits AI stocks

OpenAI told investors its yearly revenue rate was about 50 billion dollars at the end of September, below the 68 billion dollars reported last month. The gap is about how revenue is counted, not lost sales, reports say. Still, Oracle fell about 5 to 6 percent, and CoreWeave, Nvidia and AMD also dropped. Oracle has a large cloud deal with OpenAI. (CNBC, Quartz)

Wikimedia blames OpenAI agents for outage

Wikimedia says OpenAI agents tried to break into its citation tools, made unauthorised edits and sent millions of automated requests. One burst of queries may have caused a Wikidata outage in May. It shows how AI agents can strain open websites. (Ars Technica via AI Weekly, AI News Today)

Also

Sport: who won the Africa Cup?

The Court of Arbitration for Sport heard Senegal's appeal on Thursday over the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title. Senegal won the final 1-0, but African football body CAF later gave the title to Morocco because Senegal walked off the pitch. The court says a decision will follow within days. (Al Jazeera, TimesLIVE)

Nature

The red deer rut runs from mid-September to about mid-October. On the Veluwe, stags now "bellow" at dawn and dusk to attract females and warn off rivals. They are often loudest just before or after a cold night. (Welingelichte Kringen, Dagjeweg)

On this day

On 9 October 1874 the Universal Postal Union was founded in Bern, Switzerland. It set shared rules for sending mail between countries. That is why today is World Post Day. (Simple Wikipedia, History.com)

Weather in Groningen

Mild and wet. Rain starts around 7 in the morning and keeps going all day, heaviest between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, with another heavy burst around 10 in the evening. Lowest about 9 degrees late in the morning, rising to about 16 degrees in the early evening. (Open-Meteo)

On the agenda today

• Nobel Peace Prize: announced at 11:00 in Oslo. There are 287 candidates. (Malay Mail, Wikipedia)
• Formula 1: the Singapore Grand Prix weekend starts, with one practice session and Sprint qualifying. (Formula 1, GPFans)
• CBS: new figures on producer confidence and industrial output. (CBS)