The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday forecast a sharp drop in economic output in Pakistan, the Middle East and North Africa this year due to the US-Israeli-led war against Iran, followed by a rebound to 6.6 per cent growth in 2027, while warning that further energy production disruptions could worsen the outlook.

The IMF said the region’s output was expected to contract by 1.3pc as a result of the war’s impact on energy production, shipping, tourism, trade and confidence. Economic output would increase sharply in 2027, but output in those economies would generally stay below pre-war projections.

The war’s impact had been substantial, but uneven, with oil-exporting economies directly affected by disruptions to energy production and shipping hit harder, and oil importers proving to be more resilient, the IMF said in its regional outlook released Thursday in Dubai.

The IMF said its baseline assumed that the conflict would abate in early 2027 and that trade would gradually normalise during the year, but it said the outlook remained clouded by “exceptionally high uncertainty.”

“The main risks derive from further disruption to energy production and trade routes that could drive energy prices higher,” the IMF said in a statement outlining its key messages, noting external financial conditions could also tighten.

External financial conditions could also tighten if investors reassess AI-driven productivity gains and interest rates rise further amid heightened concerns about inflation and fiscal positions, it said.

Oil importers had proven more resilient, with domestic demand supported by remittances and tourism flows, favourable financial conditions, and prompt policy responses that safeguard consumers from higher commodity prices, the IMF said.

Growth in the Caucasus and Central Asia was moderating toward a more sustainable pace, the IMF said, forecasting a 5.2pc rise in economic output in 2026 and 5pc in 2027.

The IMF underscored the mantra it delivered during last week’s annual meetings, urging policymakers to prioritise maintaining price stability, while preserving fiscal sustainability, maintaining central bank independence and enacting structural reforms to boost productivity and create jobs.

Early voting has been underway for weeks ahead of the November 3, 2026, midterm elections, when US voters will elect members of the House of Representatives and Senate and governors in states across the country.

Held in the middle of each four-year presidential term, the midterms by definition do not involve the president. But for anyone who thinks they lack drama or importance this year, consider these two statistics: More than 100 million people likely will cast ballots in this year’s midterm voting, if turnout is anything like the previous midterm in 2022; and as of October 12, a record $3.8 billion had been spent on political advertisements that have been aired so far.

Top spending is in battleground US Senate races in Texas, Ohio and Michigan, according to AdImpact, which tracks the activities.

Elon Musk alone has spent about $366m to support Republicans, according to campaign finance records.

Still, midterms generally attract fewer voters than the higher-profile presidential races. More than 155m votes were cast in the 2024 presidential election, for example.

Control of Congress at stake

Plenty is at stake in this midterm election as Democrats try to win majority control of the US Congress.

Currently, Republicans hold a 218-214 majority in the House, where there are two vacancies and one independent who caucuses with Republicans. Democrats must win a net gain of four seats to win control.

Democrats are also fighting to win the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. They must net four additional seats to get control. Ten races, including those in Maine, Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa and Georgia, could decide the outcome.

Can midterms affect the presidency?

Midterm elections generally are dangerous territory for the political party that holds the White House and/or Congress. For 2026, that means that President Donald Trump and his Republicans controlling the US Senate and House of Representatives are in perilous political positions.

The midterms can be an opportunity for voters to, in effect, grade the president’s performance, and possibly trigger White House course corrections if they receive low marks.

Midterm election results can also give aspiring presidential candidates hints on how to tailor their messages to voters in the next presidential campaign, which in this case will be in 2028.

What are polls showing?

Approval of Trump’s performance is at an all-time low of 32 per cent, according to a September Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Domestic issues like rising consumer prices are likely to have an impact on the outcome of many races and could erode support for Republicans.

At the same time, there is evidence that Democrats are more enthusiastic about voting this year than Republicans. If early voting trends continue, it could point to a Democratic win in November.

There are also signs that Latino voters who veered to Trump in 2024 might be returning to Democrats because of frustration over the economy and some of Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics.

However, a landslide for the Democrats is far from assured. Republicans could benefit from continued scepticism towards Democrats, a Republican spending advantage on campaigns, and fears from moderate voters over some primary wins by left-wingers.

Recent midterm history

Recent history tells the story of the shockwaves a midterm election can produce.

In the 2010 midterms, during the Democratic presidency of Barack Obama, Republicans scored major victories, winning 63 additional House seats amid an underperforming US economy and weak support for Obama’s landmark healthcare reform legislation. Democrats lost their majority. In the Senate, they held onto control despite losing six seats.

The Republican wave was a “shellacking,” Obama lamented at the time. He subsequently faced Republican demands for significant reductions to non-defence spending.

Democrats returned the favour in 2018, with Trump in the White House. They gained a net total of 40 House seats, but lost a net two Senate seats.

This year’s elections also have races for governors in 36 of the 50 states and voting in nearly every state for seats in their state-level legislative bodies.
Currently, Republicans control 55pc of state legislative seats across the country, while Democrats hold 43.8pc, according to Ballotpedia.

Who will be speaker?

If Democrats manage to win the House, the next speaker second in line for the presidency after the vice president is likely to be Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York. He is currently the House Democratic leader.

Jeffries, who would become the first Black American to hold the powerful office, would be in a position to direct House committees to launch investigations into a range of controversial activities by Trump and his associates. Jeffries repeatedly has said Democrats would look into what he has called “unprecedented levels of corruption” during the Trump administration.

Jeffries also would steer Democrats’ legislative priorities through the House. He has said Democrats would focus on making healthcare, groceries, housing, energy and other costs more affordable.

A Republican win, on the other hand, would ensure that the speaker’s gavel remains in that party’s hands, either with current speaker Mike Johnson or whichever Republican prevails if he is challenged for the job. Republican priorities are likely to be focused on additional tax cuts, huge increases in defence spending, and deeper social safety net reductions, building on Trump’s 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Marquee races

Among the most-watched House races are Republican Representative Mike Lawler’s bid for reelection to a New York district that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris won in her 2024 presidential campaign and an open seat in a Nebraska swing district where farmers and truckers face sharply higher fuel prices as a result of the US war against Iran.

Also high on Democrats’ list of House seats they hope to take from Republicans are two in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey.

Hovering over all of this are questions over whether Trump will try to meddle in the elections, which are administered by the 50 individual states.

Since 2020, he has repeatedly insisted there is widespread cheating in US elections, despite a lack of evidence. State election officials and Democrats in Congress have been preparing for possible legal challenges to any moves by his administration to try to intervene.

Government websites in Europe and elsewhere went offline on Wednesday after the disclosure of critical vulnerabilities in a widely used programming language sent website operators around the world scrambling to protect their systems.

Developers of the PHP programming language on Wednesday released urgent new fixes to vulnerabilities that had quietly been lurking in their software for years until they were uncovered using AI, saying that all users were “encouraged to update immediately.”

With tech firms warning that some hackers were already exploiting the flaws, government agencies across Europe were among those that took sites offline as a precaution.

Because a fix is now public and artificial intelligence tools are able to reverse engineer the bug with little effort, experts said they were bracing for a wave of intrusions as hackers jumped to get ahead of fixes.

AI was powering a “race to exploit,” said Costin Raiu, co-founder of cybersecurity research and incident response firm TLP: Black. He said the next step was the “mass compromise of every vulnerable web server on the internet”.

PHP, a language that dates back to the early 1990s and initially stood for “Personal Home Page”, underpins huge parts of the public-facing web and is baked into WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Magento sites, meaning that any critical vulnerability potentially has enormous knock-on consequences.

“All servers using any version of PHP released in the last 20 years will be vulnerable,” said Tiffany Farriss, the interim chief executive of the Drupal Association. “This issue impacts the majority of the Internet.”

Cybersecurity agencies in Europe, Australia, Japan and Britain have urged PHP users to update immediately or take websites offline until patches can be applied.

The Dutch cybersecurity agency itself went offline, saying it had done so as a precaution because of the vulnerabilities. The operator of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia also said it had taken down an unspecified number of systems until they could be safely patched.

Even some world leaders, who don’t typically get involved with software updates, weighed in. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, in a post on X, said website owners should “check whether your live site uses PHP and prepare to apply the new fix.”

Bug found with AI

The flaw in PHP was discovered using artificial intelligence, Alphabet-owned cybersecurity company Wiz said in a blog post.

The vulnerabilities remained hidden in the PHP codebase for more than a decade and would have been extraordinarily complicated for a human hacker to have taken advantage of, the post said.

“Pre-AI, this manual work would be difficult to implement and even harder to scale,” it said. “With AI, this is no longer a barrier.”

Wiz said its research relied on Wiz Atlas, its autonomous AI vulnerability research tool, as well as Google’s Gemini 4 Argon and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol. Wiz said it coordinated with the PHP team, OpenAI, and the cybersecurity company Calif on the discovery of the vulnerability and patch verification.

The company said it also partnered with Google Cloud, Cloudflare, Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft, WordPress.com operator Automattic, and other companies such as Fastly, Akamai, Imperva, and Vercel to protect customers and prepare mitigations.

In a statement, the White House said it was made aware of the flaw on Friday.

“This discovery demonstrates exactly why American leadership in SI is so critical,” the White House said, referring to President Donald Trump’s preferred term for artificial intelligence. “This is American innovation strengthening our national security.

Critical software

When a visitor loads a page, a server running PHP assembles the content and sends it to the browser. It is free, open-source software maintained by volunteers.

Because of its ubiquity, PHP runs roughly 75 per cent of websites whose programming language can be identified, according to web technology tracker W3Techs, and because the vulnerabilities are considered so dangerous, experts are anxious about a potentially vast pool of sitting ducks.

AI-assisted hacking campaigns, which have proliferated in recent weeks, would only make things worse, said Lukasz Olejnik, a visiting senior research fellow at King’s College London.

“The scale is huge, and with AI, exploitation may happen instantly, on a large scale,” Olejnik said.

The risk is particularly acute for small websites run by individuals or organisations with limited technical resources, often on shared hosting services where customers do not directly manage the underlying servers. Security experts said such sites could take longer to patch and remain exposed well after fixes become available.

Mass outages

In the Netherlands, several organisations followed the example of the National Cyber Security Centre and took public-facing websites offline, including the Port of Rotterdam, government portal Overheid.nl, the national football association KNVB, the websites for the country’s five largest political parties and several hospital websites.

Danish municipal IT company Kombit said it had shut down several services, including the national school communication platform.

Disruption was even more widespread in Finland, where state IT services provider Valtori said government public network services had been taken offline “as a precautionary measure”.

France’s Interior Ministry said it had placed all of its websites into preventive maintenance. Japanese cloud service provider Sakura Internet said on Wednesday it had suspended a database appliance function.

Apple on Wednesday said it will have ‘limited’ numbers of its folding iPhone Duo phone available for walk-in customers when the device launches on Friday, after initial online orders sold out in minutes and pushed delivery times for some customers to January.

Apple announced its first folding phone in September, with analysts expecting it to quickly come to dominate a niche segment where rivals such as Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies have sold premium offerings for years.

But the iPhone Duo is also a more complex product than standard candy-bar iPhones, with a tight-fitting hinge that analysts believe may take time for Apple to learn to manufacture in high volumes.

“On Friday morning, our teams look forward to welcoming customers at Apple Stores to experience iPhone Duo and the incredible iPhone line-up for themselves,” Apple said in a statement.

“Apple Stores will have limited iPhone Duo available for walk-in customers, and we’re working hard to get this revolutionary new product into customers’ hands as quickly as possible,” it said.

The availability of walk-in units will vary by country, Apple said.

Online order pickup and limited walk-in purchases will be available in the United States, Australia, Canada, Mexico and much of the UK and Europe.

Other regions will only have iPhone Duo units available for customers who already bought them online, including mainland China, France, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the UAE, Apple said.

On the China-governed island of Macau, the iPhone Duo will be available for walk-in customers only, with limited inventory, Apple said.

OpenAI said on Wednesday it was expanding advertising on ChatGPT to 26 more countries, including Pakistan, ​bringing the total to 89 as ‌the AI company beefs up its advertising business to boost revenue ahead of a potential initial public ​offering.

The company said in August its ads ​business had reached an annualised revenue run ⁠rate of $1 billion.

OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT ​in the US earlier this year, and ​more than 100,000 advertisers have since run campaigns on the platform, the company said.

The expansion adds 14 more ​Latin American countries, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia ​and Peru, following launches in Mexico and Brazil.

Ads are also launching in markets across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, including Nigeria, South Africa, Serbia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Advertisers can access ​ChatGPT ads ​in the ⁠new markets through technology partners, or get self-service access via Ads Manager ​on the company’s platform.

Ads will appear ​only ⁠on ChatGPT’s Free and Go plans, while Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscriptions will remain ad-free.

In ⁠September, ​OpenAI introduced AI-powered tools for ​advertisers and began testing business-sponsored agents with select US advertisers.

When Justice Department (DOJ) staffers arrived in Minnesota this summer to monitor the state’s primary election, they found themselves under scrutiny as well.

Minnesota officials deployed about 40 state employees, working in pairs, to track the DOJ lawyers as they travelled through two counties during the August vote.

The monitoring effort reflected mounting tensions between Minnesota and the Trump administration over elections and immigration.

Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon said his office is likely to continue coordinating with the state attorney general’s office to shadow federal monitors during the November 3 midterms, when control of Congress is at stake. California has launched a similar programme.

While Simon acknowledged the DOJ monitors were not disruptive, the moves by Minnesota and California nevertheless underscore the unease in Democratic-led and some Republican-led states about the DOJ’s plans to deploy about 1,000 monitors in all 50 states on Election Day, roughly triple the number in the last midterm election. The deployment would be the largest observation effort in the department’s history.

The Trump administration has taken an increasingly aggressive approach to election oversight, pressing states for voter-registration data and arguing that stricter measures are needed to ensure public confidence in the vote. Critics, including both Democratic and some Republican election officials, view the moves as federal overreach.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said in an interview that “they are the source of interference,” referring to the federal government. “They are the ones that are intimidating and creating the suppression.”

Justice Department officials accuse critics of fear-mongering about the monitor programme, saying it will focus on compliance with civil rights laws as in prior elections.

DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels said the monitors will be trained not to interfere with election processes and will focus on countering voter intimidation and protecting access.

The DOJ has not yet revealed where monitors will be deployed, but department officials said priorities include areas with a history of voter access issues and places with competitive races that could be targets of voter intimidation.

The expanded monitor programme has led several states to issue new guidelines to local election officials and poll workers about the limited authority DOJ observers will have on Election Day.

Some state and local laws allow election officials to prevent DOJ monitors from being present inside polling locations.

DOJ staff can observe voting, speak to voters after they leave polling places and report immediate concerns to local law enforcement or election officials. But they cannot conduct investigations on the spot or otherwise stop anyone from voting.

In Nevada, the chief election official, Democrat Cisco Aguilar, said local law enforcement will be trained to remove any DOJ monitor breaking rules or refusing to leave a polling place if asked.

In Maine, where a key race could help decide control of the Senate, the secretary of state has told local election supervisors to contact the state if federal monitors request permission to observe.

A long-running programme

The Justice Department for decades has dispatched election monitors to document potential civil rights violations, such as polling locations that lack Spanish-language ballots or are inaccessible to people with disabilities.

The Trump administration has reshaped the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which runs the monitoring programme, prompting an exodus of career staff and a new focus on election fraud and voting by non-US citizens.

The new emphasis has led some state officials, rights groups and former DOJ lawyers to fear the expanded programme could be used as a tool to sow doubt about the security of the election, in which Democrats are widely expected to gain control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.

“There’s never been a time when DOJ’s presence would have been viewed as this much of a threat,” said Stacey Young, a former DOJ lawyer who previously worked as an election monitor and now runs Justice Connection, an advocacy group that has opposed the Trump administration.

A particular concern among voter rights groups is the department’s plan to deploy criminal prosecutors as monitors, in a break with historical practice. The department has relied on civil lawyers and support staff in the past out of concern that the presence of criminal prosecutors at the polls could make voters apprehensive.

A major civil rights group, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), has sued to bar prosecutors and other law enforcement personnel from serving as monitors, arguing the Trump administration’s plans amount to voter intimidation.

A senior DOJ official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, said voters were unlikely to notice a difference between prosecutors and other DOJ staff.

“Monitors will not identify themselves as prosecutors,” Pels said in a statement, arguing the NAACP lawsuit is based on “unwarranted fear and baseless speculation”.

She said the monitors would document instances of any alleged voting by non-citizens they uncover, a core Trump administration priority that has not historically been a focus of the programme.

“If monitors observe any violation of federal election law, including voting by non-citizens, they record and report it to the department,” Pels said.

The senior DOJ official said monitors would not seek to check voters’ citizenship status on Election Day. Reports from monitors, however, could contribute to investigations after the election, the official said.

It’s unclear what evidence of illegal voting monitors would be able to collect while observing in polling places.

The Trump administration has made voting by non-citizens a centrepiece of its campaign, alleging voter fraud, prosecuting alleged offenders in past elections and seeking to block California from counting some 20,000 mail ballots from voters the administration alleges are likely non-citizens.

Studies have found that the practice is rare, but President Donald Trump and his allies have held up isolated cases as evidence to falsely claim that US elections are “rigged.”

Few incidents in primaries

The DOJ has said it monitored hundreds of polling places in 11 states during this year’s primary elections. Few incidents were reported, but in Wyoming, the state’s Republican governor, Mark Gordon, asked the state attorney general to probe what he described as aggressive conduct by DOJ monitors, including requests to examine voting machines.

The DOJ official said monitors only asked about the machines to inquire about access for people with disabilities. A spokesperson for Gordon said disagreements remained about the episode.

Officials in several states told Reuters they had worked successfully with DOJ monitors in prior elections and did not anticipate disruptions this year.

Two Minnesota counties, Hennepin and Ramsey, invoked state law to keep DOJ monitors from within 30 metres of polling places during the primary election in August.

The tractors rolling into the town of Gela on the southern tip of Europe are flying the Sicilian flag, emblazoned with Medusa, three bent legs and ears of wheat, a reminder of the island’s role as a breadbasket since Roman times.

But the farmers are not bringing in a harvest. They are protesting.

As soaring fuel prices squeeze household budgets and businesses across Europe, cost-of-living pressures are driving unrest and giving fresh momentum to far-right parties ahead of elections next year in countries including France, Italy and Poland.

Parties once considered fringe had already been gaining ground, with voters from motorists in rural France to young men in Germany’s former Communist east looking for alternatives.

The US-Iran war, which erupted in February and sent energy prices sharply higher, has compounded the challenge for governments already struggling to contain inflation, support growth and rein in spending.

The discontent has spilled onto the streets.

In France, demonstrations that began over deteriorating school facilities in Paris’ northern suburbs have morphed into some of the country’s worst unrest in decades, with shops looted, buildings torched and a 19th-century town hall in Limoges set on fire.

“Why am I here? Well, quite simply, I find the current cost of living truly terrifying,” said Quentin Leviloux, a 21-year-old protester in Nantes.

“Just think of people who earn barely the minimum wage, when you look at the cost of food, fuel, and everything else. Its terrifying how incredibly expensive things have become.” The European Commission estimates the Iran conflict has cost Europe roughly 100 billion ($112 billion) through disrupted trade and energy markets. Gas prices have jumped about 140 per cent and diesel prices have doubled.

In a weekend address, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the “legitimate demands” of protesters angered by rising living and fuel costs, while condemning those responsible for violence and looting. “We must never confuse them with those who destroyed, vandalised and looted,” he said.

Protests erupt across Europe

Violence has also erupted elsewhere. In the wealthy northern Italian city of Milan, police clashed on Sunday with protesters hurling stones and looting stores during demonstrations over poor public services and rising living costs.

In Gela, on Sicily’s southern coast, farmers say fuel costs have made operating machinery prohibitively expensive. “We cultivate the land, we harvest debts,” said one banner.

“We are completely at a standstill,” said Arcangelo Gambino, a farmers’ representative in Caltanissetta province. “The (fuel) cost has more than doubled.” Roadblocks by truckers, farmers and steelworkers have disrupted transport across parts of southern Italy, contributing to local fuel shortages and concerns over supermarket supplies.

Tens of thousands marched through Lisbon on Saturday over low wages, housing costs and the rising cost of living, increasing pressure on Portugal’s centre-right government.

In Spain, the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home sparked nationwide demonstrations over housing shortages and soaring rents, helping trigger a snap election next month.

Belgium has also seen demonstrations, while large rallies in Albania have been driven by anger over perceived government corruption, a lack of jobs and poor education standards.

The protests reflect broader economic anxieties that are increasingly shaping politics across the continent.

Concerns about purchasing power have become “a major driver of populist politics” across Europe, said Gilles Ivaldi, a political scientist at Sciences Po.

Politicians on both the hard right and hard left have increasingly argued that restoring energy ties with Russia would help lower costs, challenging Europe’s mainstream consensus on support for Ukraine.

Le pen makes fuel prices a campaign issue

The latest energy shock comes after years of economic strain following the pandemic and the fallout from Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In France, rising energy costs have provided an explosive backdrop to next April’s presidential election. Macron’s government is struggling with a ballooning budget deficit and pressure from bond markets.

Frontrunner Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally and hard-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon have both made fuel prices central planks in their campaigns.

Rising fuel prices are clearly an issue that boosts Marine Le Pen, said Ivaldi. I think this is an issue she has owned for quite some time.” Since the Iran war began, Le Pen’s ratings have improved while Macron’s have slipped, according to polling by Elabe.

Le Pen’s proposal to sharply cut value-added tax on fuel has attracted broad public support. Analysts say the issue resonates strongly with her core voters in rural and semi-rural areas where car travel is often essential.

Calls to restore Russia ties

In neighbouring Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is leading national opinion polls after strong gains in local elections. The cost of living topped Germans’ concerns for a fifth straight year in a survey published this month.

German inflation spiked to nearly a three-year high in September, with energy price inflation rising to 14.9pc, handing ammunition to the AfD to attack Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The AfD is pushing to restore energy ties with Russia, arguing that Berlins support for Ukraine is needlessly self-sabotaging at a time when Europes largest economy and many of its energy-hungry companies are struggling.

Past experience indicates a link between high energy prices and voter turnout for the AfD, said Jan Steckel, professor for the political economy of climate change at the Technical University of Munich.

Populist parties often frame energy costs as avoidable and attribute them to government policy choices … rather than to the underlying geopolitical shocks that drive them,” he said.

These geopolitical shocks are … much more difficult to explain. And I think this is why incumbent parties often struggle.” The argument is gaining traction elsewhere.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni faces growing competition from National Future, a new far-right party led by former army general Roberto Vannacci that advocates restoring gas links with Russia.

In Poland, one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters, concern over energy bills is helping boost support for the far-right Confederation of the Polish Crown. Its leader, Grzegorz Braun, has called for a return to buying Russian oil and gas, making the case alongside AfD politicians in Lubmin, where the damaged Nord Stream pipelines land in Germany.

I love the smell of Russian gas in the morning, he said.

Alberta residents voted to remain part of Canada in the province’s first-ever referendum on separation, in a much-needed win for Prime Minister Mark Carney as he attempts to unify the country amid a trade war with the US.

CBC News, Canada’s government-funded national broadcaster, called the result late Monday after 33 per cent of the vote had been counted. At the time of the call, 76pc of tallied votes were in support of the “remain” side versus 23pc in favour of the province moving forward with a binding vote on separation. The referendum was nonbinding.

“Albertans made a clear choice,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement.

“They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other.”

“Canada is greater than the sum of its parts,” he said.

Pollsters and analysts had repeatedly dismissed the possibility of a separatist victory, citing data that showed about one-third of residents in the western province supported a future referendum on leaving.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the referendum in May, saying it was time to have a vote, understand the will of Albertans on this subject, and move on.

Late Monday, Smith issued a statement on social media saying she was “very pleased” that early results show widespread support for remaining in Canada. She said she would address Albertans on Tuesday to discuss the results and “where our province goes from here.”

A small but vocal group of separatists has campaigned for months for an independent Alberta, arguing that the province’s energy wealth is subsidising poorer parts of Canada and that Alberta would be far richer without Ottawa bureaucracy impeding its path.

Last week, Carney told a rally in Calgary that voting to leave Canada would be a dangerous bluff that will lead to years of deep division, and appealed to Albertans to vote like Canada depends on it.

Carney, who grew up mostly in Alberta, acknowledged that Albertans have often felt slighted by Ottawa and said his government had approved a proposed new pipeline, adding that Alberta is critical to helping Canada reduce its dependence on the US.

Alberta’s referendum follows two previous referendums on separation in the majority French-speaking province of Quebec. Quebecers voted to stay in Canada in both instances.

First Nations groups have also objected to the idea of an independent Alberta, as their land treaties with Ottawa predate the province’s creation within Canada.

CBC News reported strong turnout from First Nations. One southern Alberta polling station in an area that is home to the Siksika Nation temporarily ran out of ballots, and then stayed open until after 10 pm MT (9 am PKT) to ensure everyone in line had the chance to vote.

Still, Monday’s referendum is unlikely to end the separatist movement in Alberta. Before the referendum, some separatist leaders said they would continue to pursue another vote even if most Albertans voted to remain.

According to data released on October 16 by the pollster Angus Reid, 62pc of Albertans believe there will never be an end to the separatist movement in the province.

Alberta’s referendum also included nine other nonbinding questions on topics including immigration, access to provincial services such as education, social care and healthcare and voter identification requirements. Results for those questions were still trickling in.

Kamta Prasad has been shuttling between government offices in Delhi trying to prove he is not dead.

The 53-year-old tailor is among 130 million names removed from India’s electoral rolls under a voter roll revision that has sparked mass protests and posed the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has led to removals for reasons ranging from “logical discrepancies” to people being recorded as dead, leaving many such as Prasad struggling to get more than just their voting status restored.

He has had to forgo his daily wage of 250 Indian rupees that supports his family of four to scurry around the city to reverse the error.

“I panicked when I heard about it,” said Prasad, who is among 4.2 million Delhi voters struck off the list, according to the draft rolls published by the poll body on August 31.

“Since then I’ve been going everywhere to prove that I’m alive.”

The deletions have triggered a political storm, with opposition parties and youth groups staging near-daily protests in New Delhi and elsewhere, which have been met with force by the police.

They allege Election Commission chief Gyanesh Kumar manipulated the revision to benefit Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a charge denied by both the commission and the BJP.

‘Nobody listens’

According to Rajendra Kumar, a volunteer with non-profit Jan Sarokar, about 2,000 of the roughly 9,000 voters in Prasad’s block were struck off after the revision, classified as absent, shifted, deceased or registered elsewhere.

Prasad is the only person in this block who has been declared dead but several similar cases have been reported by local media across the country.

The Election Commission has said it was removing duplicate, deceased, shifted and otherwise ineligible voters and that anyone excluded in error can file claims, submit supporting documents and pursue appeals before the rolls are finalised.

For voters such as Prasad, however, exclusion leads to a bureaucratic maze, and depending on the circumstances they may have to provide proof of life, establish residency, correct alleged discrepancies or submit fresh documentation.

That involves repeated visits to election offices, hearings before electoral officials and multiple rounds of appeals, with some spending weeks or months trying to restore their names.

“I told them I voted in the last assembly and general elections and have been voting for 35 years, but nobody listens,” Prasad said.

India’s Election Commission did not reply to a request for comment for this story.

Register as a new voter

Following weeks of protests, the Election Commission ordered fresh verification in some states, including Delhi, and Prasad said officials had assured him his name would be restored.

Kamal Lal, a 38-year-old private school teacher in Delhi, was marked as “shifted” even though he still lives in a settlement beneath a flyover with dozens of other families.

“It is very disappointing that we have been voting in this country and now our names have been cut because we do not have land papers or a water bill,” he said.

Lal said he first learned of his exclusion in September and has since approached election officials, attended hearings and filed multiple reinstatement applications.

For some excluded voters, the remedy offered by officials has brought little comfort: rather than restoring their previous registrations, they were advised to apply afresh as new voters.

For poorer voters, fears run even deeper.

“Now local election officials are asking us to register as new voters, and my husband is strongly opposed to that because he has voted in the last few elections,” said 39-year-old Mamta, who does not use a surname.

“I am worried that if our names are not restored to the list, I could lose access to subsidised ration and other government welfare schemes.”

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Header image: Kamta Prasad, 53, a voter who is listed as “Kanta Prasad” and is declared dead in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) list published on August 1, 2026, walks through an alley in New Delhi, India on October 19, 2026. —Reuters

ISLAMABAD: Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir is due to visit Tehran on Tuesday (today), according to a Pakistani official and Iranian media.

The scheduled visit follows earlier talks between Field Marshal Munir and Iranian leaders in the summer that focused on measures to prevent further escalation and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2026

Alberta is holding a non-binding referendum on Monday to ask residents if they want to remain part of Canada, marking the first time the oil-rich province has ever put the question of separation to the public.

Polls have consistently shown that most Albertans — around 70 per cent — want to stay in Canada, with roughly a quarter of residents supporting an independent Alberta.

What will residents be asked?

There are 10 questions, each with its own colour-coded ballot. The last ballot voters see is question 10, on whether Alberta should remain a Canadian province or start the legal process required to hold a binding referendum on separation.

A simple majority in favour of separation could trigger that process. There are nine other nonbinding questions about immigration, access to provincial services including education, social care and healthcare and voter identification requirements.

Why is Alberta having this referendum?

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in May it was time to have a vote, understand the will of Albertans on this subject, and move on, when she announced the government would add a question on separation.

Smith’s decision followed months of campaigning by a small but vocal group of separatists, who argue Alberta’s energy wealth is subsidising poorer parts of the country and that bureaucracy in Ottawa has stifled the province’s economy.

Some members of the group had backed Smith’s candidacy for premier. Smith says she voted for Alberta to remain in Canada during advance polling, according to a video she posted on social media on Wednesday.

Have there been previous separatist referendums in Canada?

Yes, but not in Alberta. The majority French-speaking province of Quebec has had two referendums, in 1980 and 1995. Quebecers voted to remain in Canada both times, but by the slimmest of margins in 1995.

The separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) won a provincial election earlier this month and has pledged to hold a third referendum, but only after US President Donald Trump has left office and if the party holds a majority.

The PQ was elected with a minority government on October 5, meaning it will rely on smaller parties to pass legislation.

Canada is a federation of 10 provinces and three territories. While Ottawa is responsible for matters of national interest, such as defence, trade and foreign policy, the provinces and territories hold significant power over medical care, education and land rights.

When will the results be known?

Polls are scheduled to close at 8pm on Monday (0200 GMT on Tuesday). Elections Alberta says it will count ballots by hand and that the question on separation will be counted first.

It will publish results on the Elections Alberta website as they are received, and unofficial results are expected within 48 hours after voting ends.

What happens if most Albertans vote to start the process of leaving Canada?

Smith has said she will respect the result and quickly begin the process to hold a legally binding referendum. But separation would not happen imminently. After the 1995 Quebec referendum, Canada’s Parliament passed the Clarity Act in 2000, which says talks about secession can only be triggered if there is a clear majority from the public, without specifying the necessary threshold.

The act also states provinces and territories have no unilateral right to leave Canada and that a constitutional amendment negotiated by provincial, territorial and federal governments is required.

First Nations groups have objected to the idea of an independent Alberta, as their land treaties with Canada predate Alberta’s entry into Confederation.

In May, an Alberta court judge ruled the province’s chief electoral officer was wrong to allow separatists to collect signatures requesting a referendum, because the process should have prompted a consultation with Indigenous peoples whose rights might be violated by separation. Alberta has appealed the decision.

What has PM Carney said about the referendum?

Carney, who was largely raised in Alberta, has previously said the best place for Alberta is in Canada and that the country cannot succeed if it’s divided. He released a video on Canadian Thanksgiving, October 12, saying national unity is critical as Canada fights threats from abroad, including a trade war with the US. Carney has campaigned for Alberta to remain in Canada.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could hold a three-way meeting on the sidelines of next month’s APEC summit in China and that a potential meeting had come up in talks.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented after being asked about a report in The Wall Street Journal which said that Putin had proposed such a meeting to discuss how to end the conflict in Ukraine.

“Given that all three heads of state may potentially take part in the summit in China, the subject of such a hypothetical meeting was indeed raised. It was raised, but no specific proposals or agreements were discussed or put forward by anyone, either regarding the meeting itself or the possible agenda and content of that meeting,” said Peskov.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha criticised the idea of such a summit.

“A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, the US, and Russia could help end the war sooner. A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, China, and the US would do only the opposite: encourage Putin to continue this war,” he said on X.

Peskov, who told reporters on a daily conference call that the US was continuing its mediation efforts to resolve the conflict and that Russia appreciated those efforts, said it was obvious that Ukraine would need to be involved in any final peace deal.

“Of course, a final settlement is impossible without the participation of someone in Kyiv who is prepared to take responsibility,” he said.

The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February before the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran. Ukraine and Russia remain as far apart as ever when it comes to the terms of any possible peace deal.

The captain of a flydubai flight who was attacked by a co-pilot who intended to crash the plane has described blocking axe blows to the head and screaming for help as he reached for a knob to open the cockpit door.

Captain Smit Machchhar has been hailed as a hero for his role in averting disaster on the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last month, helping to thwart what the UAE attorney general has said was an attempted suicide attack by the co-pilot who intended to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport.

Speaking in an interview with The National newspaper from a hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, his head and left arm bandaged, Machchhar said that when the first blow landed, he thought something had gone “horribly wrong (with) the aircraft structure”, before quickly realising he was being attacked and things had “taken a drastic turn”.

“The next thought was I need to get help in here,” he said in the interview published on Saturday.

“My immediate action was to free myself from the seat belts and I tried to just block the blows as much as I could,” he said, pointing to his arm that was wounded as he defended himself. “The blows were coming on the head.

“Immediately my hand went to the knob which opens the door and screaming for my colleagues, screaming his name.

“I believe that was the first time when I lost my consciousness.”

The aircraft, flight FZ1073, was in Saudi airspace when the co-pilot attacked Machchhar with a crash axe, typically kept in the cockpit for emergency use.

The incident caused the airliner to plunge 16,000 feet (4,900 metres) in 30 seconds before the attacker was overwhelmed and two other pilots who were on board landed the aircraft safely in Saudi Arabia. The suspect, an Omani national, was transferred to the UAE, flydubai’s home country.

The plan was inspired by the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the US, UAE public prosecutors say, as a result of their criminal investigation launched on October 1.

Machchhar said he heard the cockpit door opening and screaming “between my colleague and the guy”.

He said the scariest thing he felt was the aircraft nose “steeply going down”.

“I was not very sure that I’ll make it out alive from this. Did I give up? No.”

United States President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed his ally Benjamin Netanyahu as the longtime Israeli prime minister struggles for an edge in next week’s parliamentary election.

Trump praised Netanyahu as a “great warrior prime minster” and peace partner, crediting him with joining the United States in launching strikes on Iran in February. The conflict, in its seventh month, has disrupted energy markets globally and wreaked havoc across the Middle East, damaging critical infrastructure and destabilising regional economies.

“Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“Despite all of that, he has endured and, in fact, he has thrived! I have watched Bibi under the most trying of times. Normal men or women in such situations would have wilted under the pressure But Bibi did not wilt, he actually got stronger, and maintains that same Strength today.”

In his message, addressed to “the Great People of Israel”, Trump added, “Please let this Letter serve to represent my Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming Race for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Israel.”

The Trump endorsement is not certain to give Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party a boost in the Oct 27 national election, as Israeli public support for Trump has diminished amid Israeli-US disagreements over Iran.

Polls have suggested no candidate has a clear path to power. Israel’s prime minister is chosen through coalition-building in parliament rather than by direct popular vote.

It will be Israel’s first vote since the Hamas attack on Oct 7, 2023. Israel has launched an assault on Gaza and carried out strikes in Lebanon and Iran since.

The election could determine whether Netanyahu remains in power after one of the most consequential periods in Israel’s history, or is defeated by centrist rivals promising to usher in a new era.

Netanyahu promptly expressed his thanks to Trump on X, saying, “Together we will complete the mission!”

Trump has broken with longtime US tradition by endorsing candidates in elections in foreign countries, including Hungary, Colombia, Argentina, Japan and Honduras.

Manchester City bounced back from their midweek setback in Europe to maintain their perfect Premier League start with Erling Haaland’s double propelling them to a 3-2 home win over Ipswich Town on Saturday.

Paris Saint-Germain inflicted a first meaningful defeat on Enzo Maresca’s side in the Champions League on Wednesday but City shrugged off a gallant Ipswich side to make it seven wins from seven to cement their place at the top of the table.

Chelsea beat Everton 2-0 in Saturday’s early action thanks to Pedro Neto’s brace although the London club’s win was overshadowed by an injury to goalkeeper Emi Martinez.

Liverpool came from a goal down to beat Brentford 2-1 away although they were helped by the previously unbeaten hosts being reduced to 10 men shortly before halftime when Yehor Yarmolyuk was shown a straight red card for a head butt.

Victory lifted Liverpool above Brentford into fifth place with 12 points behind Chelsea in fourth on 13.

Fulham moved off the foot of the table with their first league win of the season — 1-0 at home to Hull City.

Dark clouds remain over the Etihad Stadium with Manchester City’s fate still unknown after they appealed a ruling that the club breached 114 Premier League financial rules.

City have always denied any wrongdoing.

But on the pitch it is very much business as usual, especially for Norwegian goal machine Haaland.

Phil Foden gave City a short-lived lead cancelled out by Daizen Maeda, but Haaland restored the home side’s advantage before halftime with a header from Mateo Kovacic’s cross.

Haaland then gave his side some breathing space with his second in the 69th minute, powering past Ipswich’s Abdoul Ouattara before a low finish into the corner.

He was denied a hat-trick by an offside decision and Ipswich got a lifeline when Zian Flemming tucked away a penalty in stoppage time but City bagged the points.

Feisty first half

Chelsea have had a knack of scoring early this season but were kept at bay by hosts Everton in a feisty and physical first half that produced five yellow cards.

However, Xabi Alonso’s visitors needed just 43 seconds after the restart to go 1-0 up when Jorrel Hato cut the ball back from the byline to find Neto who swept home.

Martinez’s clash of heads with Jarrad Branthwaite caused a lengthy stoppage with paramedics coming onto the pitch. The Argentina keeper was eventually strapped to a stretcher and taken off, leading to 11 minutes of stoppage time.

Chelsea doubled their lead in the 90th minute when Neto pounced on a loose ball after Jordan Henderson’s free kick was blocked by the wall, finding the bottom corner with a composed finish as Everton suffered their first defeat of the season.

“What we know is he (Martinez) left the stadium conscious and right now he is in the hospital doing precautionary tests,” Alonso said. “It was concussion but more than that I saw only one clip. Hopefully it won’t be too bad but we need to wait.”

Martinez’s knock gave 21-year-old keeper Mike Penders the chance to make his Premier League debut and he helped Chelsea keep a clean sheet in the league for the first time in 23 games.

“We need a clean sheet, to be honest. I think we did a very good game. Emi deserved this, Mike did as well,” Alonso added.

Liverpool deservedly fell behind at Brentford with Keane Lewis-Potter putting the hosts in front.

Brentford were good value for their lead but Yarmolyuk’s rush of blood to the head when he clashed with Jeremy Jacquet at a Liverpool corner changed the game.

After referee John Brooks was invited to check a VAR monitor he brandished the red card at Ukrainian Yarmolyuk who trudged off to applause from the home fans.

Liverpool huffed and puffed after the break but Victor Munoz finally levelled in the 62nd minute when he cut in to beat keeper Caoimhin Kelleher with a left-foot finish.

Alexander Isak won it for Andoni Iraola’s side eight minutes later with a clinical strike from Bradley Barcola’s assist.

Brentford ended with nine men after Vitaly Janelt got a second yellow card for a foul on substitute Rio Ngumoha.

Elsewhere, Alex Iwobi’s 33rd-minute strike for Fulham was enough to earn their new manager Alvaro Arbeloa a long-overdue league win and move Fulham up to 15th.