Australian MP Helen Haines critically injured in deliberate car attack

This is the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing, for Tuesday, the twentieth of October, twenty twenty-six. Here is what matters now.

Australian M P Helen Haines, a sixty-five-year-old independent, remains in critical condition after being struck by a Toyota Land Cruiser S U V outside her electoral office in Wangaratta, Victoria, on Monday afternoon. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the incident was "no accident" and appeared to be a deliberate attack. Police said there is no ongoing threat to the community and no early indication that Haines and the driver knew each other. She has had a leg amputated, according to local media and the latest medical updates, and a suspect has been charged and is in custody. Australia's counterterrorism team was activated after the attack, and the investigation is continuing.

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives on Friday, torching cars and trees and beating residents in what observers described as a coordinated effort to disrupt the annual olive harvest. Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was among those beaten, and Belgium said settlers also assaulted European diplomats and a French mayor in a separate incident. The attacks drew international condemnation amid a surge in settler violence during the harvest season.

In space exploration, Japan has launched an uncrewed spacecraft aboard an H3 rocket on Tuesday on a five-year mission to explore Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos and return the first samples from Phobos to Earth. The mission, known as M M X and costing about five hundred and seventy-eight million dollars, aims to deliver dust, soil and rocks in twenty thirty-one, potentially shedding light on how the moons formed and on the origins of the Solar System. Five space agencies are collaborating on the project, which will attempt to land a robotic prospector and a rover on Phobos, the larger of the two Martian moons.

In the Middle East, Britain will deploy Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to fly defensive missions over cities and critical infrastructure as Houthi attacks in the region escalate. The Ministry of Defence said the warplanes will operate in a defensive role and will not be used to attack the Yemen-based group. The announcement follows a spike in strikes by the Iran-backed Houthis and came as Saudi Arabia postponed its flagship twenty twenty-six investment conference, known as "Davos in the Desert," until twenty twenty-seven and told government staff to work from home.

In Kenya, a court has found doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie, his wife Rhoda Maweu and twenty-nine co-accused guilty of murdering one hundred and ninety children and one adult in one of the worst cult-related disasters in recent history. Mackenzie ran the Good News International Church and was accused of instructing followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could "meet Jesus." Mackenzie denied ordering the victims to starve. He was arrested in twenty twenty-three after police received a tip-off, leading to the discovery of mass graves in the Shakahola forest.

In Canada, voters in Alberta have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to begin a process toward independence, with more than one point five million votes counted showing about seventy-six percent in favor of remaining in Canada and roughly twenty-four percent backing separation. The result is a victory for Prime Minister Mark Carney and supporters of Canadian unity in the oil-rich province's first referendum on secession.

In Britain, the United Kingdom's public inquiry into the Covid-nineteen pandemic has concluded that government failures caused the virus to spread "like wildfire" through care homes. In its sixth report, the inquiry led by Heather Hallett found the care sector was treated as an "afterthought," citing a shocking lack of personal protective equipment and a failure to advise homes to isolate people discharged from hospital.

In media news, veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour announced on Monday that she is leaving C N N after forty-three years. She joined the network as an assistant on the international assignment desk in one thousand nine hundred and eighty-three and later became its chief international anchor. Her departure coincides with C N N coming under new ownership following the Skydance merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, though her statement is not thought to be linked to the change.

In United States politics, Vice President J D Vance has declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel's upcoming election, saying he endorses American candidates and is focused on the U S midterm elections. Vance said he did not want to get involved in a non-U S election, a stance that contrasts with former President Donald Trump's stated "complete and total" support for Netanyahu.

Elsewhere, actor Christina Applegate has revealed that she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis and does not have the autoimmune disease. Speaking on her "MeSsy" podcast, she said her doctor recently gave her the news, which she described as "very unnerving" and confusing after she had become a prominent advocate for M S awareness and published a memoir about her struggles.

In North Carolina, five officers have resigned from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and a sixth has been suspended after allegedly exchanging racist text messages. The city's police chief said the messages emerged during an investigation into misuse of the department's Flock camera system and called them "deeply troubling," prompting a review of arrest records linked to the officers.

In Brazil, with less than a week before the presidential runoff election, polls show left-wing incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro virtually tied. Brazil's top electoral court has given Meta twenty-four hours to prove it is treating the two candidates equally on its platforms.

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