Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, journalist and diplomats in West Bank

This is the morning edition of the One News Page Global Briefing, for Monday, the nineteenth of October, twenty twenty-six. Here is what matters now.

Masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive farmers across the occupied West Bank on Friday, torching cars and trees and beating residents in what the report describes as a coordinated effort to disrupt the annual olive harvest. Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was among those assaulted and injured while covering the harvest. In a related assault, Israeli settlers also attacked European diplomats and a French mayor visiting the territory, Belgian officials said, drawing fresh international condemnation. The incidents form part of a surge of settler violence during the olive harvest, and no authority has announced arrests or an end to the attacks.

In Canada, a violent, fast-moving fire swept through Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta on Saturday, killing four service members and leaving dozens injured, including at least nineteen in critical condition. Prime Minister Mark Carney called the blaze one of the worst peacetime tragedies for Canada’s armed forces on Canadian soil. Defence Minister David McGuinty confirmed fatalities and injuries but authorities have not established the cause of the fire. Fire crews battled flames through the night as fierce winds drove the blaze beyond the base into surrounding rural areas.

At the Vatican, Pope Leo X I V appeared unaided in St Peter’s Square on Sunday to recite the Angelus prayer, his first major public appearance since surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his right lung. Addressing the crowd, he said the “delicate phase” had passed and pledged to “gradually resume” his duties. The seventy-one-year-old pontiff had been discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Saturday after doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung and deemed him fit to leave. He is currently scheduled to travel to Latin America in November.

Meanwhile, in the United States, President Donald Trump endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for re-election in a social media post, calling him a “great warrior prime minister” and an “even greater partner for peace” in combating Iran. The endorsement comes nine days before Israel’s twenty-seven October legislative election. Polls suggest Netanyahu and his far-right allies currently lack a majority to secure a new term, and some Israeli voters have expressed disappointment with Trump over the outcome of the Iran war and his ceasefire proposal. Trump said any other candidate would be the “wrong leader” and warned the United States might not continue its present role if Israel changes leaders.

Elsewhere in Europe, an Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna made an emergency landing in Sofia, Bulgaria, after the crew received a bomb threat while the aircraft was near the Bulgarian-Romanian border. A Bulgarian MiG-twenty-nine fighter jet escorted the Airbus to the capital. The plane landed safely and all passengers and crew were unharmed, officials said. Bulgarian authorities said the crew decided to divert to Sofia.

In the Middle East, Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and urged action against the group as fighting in Yemen displaced more than two hundred and thirty-three thousand people. Egypt said it would provide “necessary” support to defend Saudi Arabia’s security and protect its resources, after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told lawmakers any military assistance would be defensive.

On Gaza aid, the United Nations World Food Programme is reducing aid to Gaza because of funding shortfalls, cutting the number of people it assists from about one point six million to one point one million. The agency says one point four million people in the territory face acute food shortages, and the cutbacks come despite a United States-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro traded personal attacks in a heated presidential debate on Sunday, one week before the twenty-five October runoff. The rivals accused each other of lying and corruption and clashed over the economy, security and healthcare.

In the United States, a pickup truck sped onto a youth soccer field in Wichita, Kansas, killing a man and a six-year-old boy and injuring ten other people, including five children. Police have detained the driver and are investigating why the vehicle entered the field.

In sport, Daniel Dubois retained his W B O heavyweight title with a devastating second-round stoppage of Fabio Wardley in London, underlining his status as Britain’s leading heavyweight. Wardley’s corner threw in the towel as Dubois overwhelmed him in their rematch.

That was the morning edition of the One News Page Global Briefing. Read the complete briefing and explore its supporting coverage at one news page dot com.