Daily Brief
2026-10-18
Top Story
Trump waived the new US sanctions and tariffs on Russia two days before they were due to take effect on October 18th, and the waiver stays in place until he or the secretary of state decides otherwise
The order waives every operative section of the sanctions law named for the late Senator Lindsey Graham, including tariffs of up to 500 percent on Russian goods and up to 100 percent on the top five buyers of Russian crude and gas, as Trump turns to Russian diesel to ease rising prices. Existing sanctions are unaffected, and some lawmakers and Ukraine's President Zelenskyy have objected.
United States
Albertans vote on October 19th on whether their government should begin the legal process toward a later binding referendum on leaving Canada
Separatists accuse the federal government of unfairly targeting Alberta's oil and gas industry, the province's economic cornerstone, through its energy and environmental policies, but polls suggest most Albertans oppose independence.
Around the World
A former Guatemalan prosecutor and lawyer, Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, was shot dead while playing soccer in Guatemala City, and two people are in custody
Police say Solórzano Foppa, a former anti-gang prosecutor and head of Guatemala's tax authority, was playing soccer at the Campo Marte sports complex when unknown people shot at him, killing one other person and wounding five; he was a vocal critic of former president Alejandro Giammattei and former attorney general Consuelo Porras. President Bernardo Arévalo condemned the killing.
Crypto exchange Bitget has added Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to the countries whose residents may not use it, Meduza reports
Affected users cannot make new trades from October 18th and must close positions and withdraw funds by October 21st, according to the revised terms as reported by The Insider, and Bitget reserves the right to close positions, restrict withdrawals or convert assets into other cryptocurrencies. Bitget will notify affected users individually, and the terms also ban using a VPN to get around the restriction.
22 vessels were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz between October 1st and 13th, more than in March, the previous record month, according to TASS, Russia's state news agency, as relayed by Iranian business daily Donya-e-Eqtesad
TASS, citing data from the International Maritime Organization, the UN shipping agency, counted 15 sailors injured, two missing and one vessel sunk, with the worst day on October 11th, when six vessels were hit.
Kenya's Court of Appeal refused to suspend a ruling that cancelled the government's sale of a 15 percent stake in Safaricom, a telecom operator, to Vodacom, a South African telecom group, Jeune Afrique reports
The High Court annulled the sale on September 15th, and the government and Vodacom had jointly asked for that ruling to be suspended.
Rioting broke out in French cities on October 17th after 550,000 people protested over living costs and crumbling schools, and police detained 1,800, CNN, the US news network, reports
The town hall in Limoges was set ablaze, masked protesters broke into the one in Marseille, and Lyon's tourist office was torched. More than 500 police officers were injured, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said.
The war between JNIM, an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group, and Islamic State in the Sahel is intensifying over ransoms, religious taxation and territory, Jeune Afrique reports
Islamic State's Sahel branch says it killed more than 400 JNIM fighters and destroyed about 100 vehicles in fighting in Burkina Faso on October 10th, while JNIM says it killed several enemy fighters and two local commanders.
Egypt's President Sisi is seeking parliament's backing to help defend Saudi Arabia if asked, Radio Farda reports
Sisi said on Saturday that Egypt does not seek to attack anyone but is ready to defend Saudi Arabia, and parliament was called to an emergency session on Sunday at his request. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been striking Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh's international airport in what the report calls the deadliest such attack in several years, and Iran denies involvement.
Sri Lanka's power grid suffered a total system failure on October 17th, and the grid operator asked rooftop solar owners to disconnect until further notice
Power went out around noon on Saturday, and the National System Operator, which succeeded the Ceylon Electricity Board, made the request. The Ceylon Electricity Board's engineers' union had blamed an earlier cascading failure on the grid's inability to recover from shocks with so much rooftop solar.
Drones attacked a data center run by VK, a Russian internet company, in the Leningrad region, where 126 were shot down overnight, Kommersant reports
The company said its services are available as normal; Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko reported destruction and fires in several settlements, and St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov reported a fire at an oil terminal and other civilian sites.